"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"

Marilyn Monroe singing
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (1953)

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

1953 Album "Diamonds Are
a Girl's Best Friend"
by Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe singing
"Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"
in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes directed
by Howard Hawks

Preface: For Song #52, I've selected Marilyn Monroe singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (1953). This jazz song was introduced by Carol Channing in the original Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Leo Robin. American actress and singer Marilyn Monroe performed the song in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. She plays the gold-digger Lorelei Lee on a ship to France. The songs in the film were written by Hoagy Carmichael & Harold Adamson. This song finished at No. 12 on the 2004 American Film Institute list, "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs", selecting the top 100 songs in American cinema. Lyrics.

The French are glad to die for love
They delight in fighting duels
But I prefer a man who lives
And gives expensive jewels

A kiss on the hand
May be quite continental
But diamonds are a girl's best friend

A kiss may be grand
But it won't pay the rental
On your humble flat
Or help you at the automat

Men grow cold
As girls grow old
And we all lose our charms in the end

But square-cut or pear-shaped
These rocks don't loose their shape
Diamonds are a girl's best friend

Tiffany's!
Cartier!
Black, Starr, Frost Gorham!
Talk to me Harry Winston
Tell me all about it!
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There may come a time
When a lass needs a lawyer
But diamonds are a girl's best friend

There may come a time
When a hard-boiled employer
Thinks you're awful nice
But get that ice or else no dice

He's your guy
When stocks are high
But beware when they start to descend

It's then that those louses
Go back to their spouses
Diamonds are a girl's best friend

I've heard of affairs
That are strictly platonic
But diamonds are a girl's best friend

And I think affairs
That you must keep masonic
Are better bets
If little fetes get big baguettes
Time rolls on
And youth is gone
And you can't straighten up when you bend

But stiff back
Or stiff knees
You stand straight at Tiffany's

Diamonds! Diamonds!
I don't mean rhinestones!
But diamonds are a girl's best friend

© Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com
August 24, 2023