I've Got You Under My Skin


"I've Got You Under My Skin" is a song written by Cole Porter in 1936. It was introduced that year in the Eleanor Powell musical film Born to Dance in which it was performed by Virginia Bruce. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year. It became a signature song for Frank Sinatra, and, in 1966, became a top 10 hit for the Four Seasons.

Chart history

Weekly charts

;Louis Prima and Keely Smith
Chart Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 10095

;The Four Seasons
Chart Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles9
UK12
U.S. Billboard Hot 1009
U.S. Cash Box Top 1009

Year-end charts

Versions by Frank Sinatra

Sinatra first sang the song on his weekly radio show in 1946 as the second part of a medley with "Easy to Love". He sang it with a big band in an arrangement by Nelson Riddle. Riddle was a fan of Maurice Ravel and said that this arrangement was inspired by the Boléro. Sinatra aficionados usually rank this as one of his finest collaborations with Riddle's orchestra. The slide trombone solo is by Milt Bernhart. Sinatra usually included the song in his concerts—a tradition carried on by his son, Frank Sinatra Jr.
He recorded a studio version with Nelson Riddle's orchestra for his 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers!.
Sinatra re-recorded "I've Got You Under My Skin" for the album Sinatra's Sinatra, an album of re-recordings of his favorites. This time the trombone solo was by Dick Nash because Bernhart was unavailable.
A live version of the song appears on the 1966 album Sinatra at the Sands with Count Basie and his orchestra.
Another version of the song is an electronically assembled duet featuring Sinatra and U2 lead singer Bono on Sinatra's 1993 Duets album. The track was released on a "double A-side" with U2's "Stay ". The single peaked at number four on the UK charts.

Neneh Cherry version

Swedish singer-songwriter and rapper Neneh Cherry's hip-hop interpretation of "I've Got You Under My Skin" in 1990 was the lead single for the Red Hot + Blue charity album, and reached number 25 in the UK Singles Chart. The music video was directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Cherry replaced most of the lyrics with a rap on AIDS victims and how society reacts to them. Of the original Cole Porter lyrics, she kept only the first four lines and "Use your mentality, wake up to reality".

Critical reception

Music & Media called the song an "utterly brooding version of the old Cole Porter song, in a splendid production fro the Jungle Brothers' Baby Afrika Bambaataa." David Browne from Entertainment Weekly wrote that "the words have special urgency" in Cherry's "stark, bass-line-propelled take" on "I’ve Got You Under My Skin", because the song begins with a rap about AIDS. Marc Andrews from Smash Hits said the track "is the closest any of the artists here get to really putting the message across" in his review of the album Red Hot + Blue.

Charts

Weekly charts