Getting to Know You (song)

"Getting to Know You"
Song from The King and I
Published	1951
Writer(s)	Oscar Hammerstein II
Composer(s)	Richard Rodgers

"Getting to Know You" is a show tune from the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. It was first sung by Gertrude Lawrence in the original Broadway production and later by Marni Nixon who dubbed for Deborah Kerr in the 1956 film adaptation. In the show, Anna sings the song as she strikes up a warm and affectionate relationship with the children and the wives of the King of Siam.

This song is one of the cases during the Rodgers and Hammerstein partnership when Rodgers re-used a melody he had written for an earlier show and then discarded. In this case the melody was a tune he wrote for South Pacific, called "Suddenly Hungry and Sad", which he originally intended for the character of Nellie to sing but replaced it with the song "(I'm in Love with) a Wonderful Guy". Mary Martin, the star of South Pacific, who had proposed that Rodgers should cast Yul Brynner as the King, reminded Rodgers of this tune, and so Hammerstein wrote new lyrics to it. James Taylor covered the song off of the children's music compilation called "For Our Children".

Popular versions on record include James Taylor, Dinah Shore, Sharon, Lois & Bram, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, and Nancy Wilson. Leon Redbone sang the song in ads for the Chevrolet Geo. A version by NRBQ is included on their album Brass Tacks.

In 2015, the song was used as a closing credits theme for Season 3 of the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. Recently TransUnion has begun employing the song in its commercials promoting the company's credit monitoring service.

The song is featured in a scene in a film by the character J. O. Incandenza, in David Foster Wallace magnum opus Infinite Jest. See footnote 280 of the book.

References

In Hammerstein's Words, 'Something Wonderful' - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98538331

Rodgers and Hammerstein

Stage musicals	Oklahoma! Carousel Allegro South Pacific The King and I Me and Juliet Pipe Dream Flower Drum Song The Sound of Music A Grand Night for Singing State Fair Cinderella

Productions	I Remember Mama Annie Get Your Gun Happy Birthday John Loves Mary Show Boat The Happy Time Burning Bright

Films	State Fair Oklahoma! Carousel The King and I South Pacific Flower Drum Song State Fair The Sound of Music Cinderella

Television	Cinderella The Sound of Music Live!

Songs	"Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" "Kansas City" "I Cain't Say No" "Many a New Day" "It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!" "People Will Say We're in Love" "Lonely Room" "The Farmer and the Cowman" "All Er Nuthin'" "Oklahoma" "If I Loved You" "Soliloquy" "You'll Never Walk Alone" "It Might as Well Be Spring" "That's for Me" "A Fellow Needs a Girl" "So Far" "Some Enchanted Evening" "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" "Bali Ha'i" "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" "Younger Than Springtime" "Happy Talk" "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" "I Whistle a Happy Tune" "Hello, Young Lovers" "Getting to Know You" "We Kiss in a Shadow" "Something Wonderful" "I Have Dreamed" "Shall We Dance?" "No Other Love" "I Enjoy Being a Girl" "The Sound of Music" "Maria" "My Favorite Things" "Do-Re-Mi" "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" "The Lonely Goatherd" "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" "So Long, Farewell" "No Way to Stop It" "Edelweiss"

Related articles	"Something Good" The Sound of Music The Sound of Music: Music from the NBC Television Event

Margaret Landon's Anna and the King of Siam

Characters	Anna Leonowens Mongkut, King of Siam Prince Chulalongkorn Louis T. Leonowens

Films	Anna and the King of Siam (1946) The King and I (1956) The King and I (1999) Anna and the King (1999)

TV	Anna and the King

Stage	The King and I (musical)

Music	"I Whistle a Happy Tune" "Hello, Young Lovers" "Getting to Know You" "We Kiss in a Shadow" "Something Wonderful" "I Have Dreamed"

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