For no reason in particular I chose Call Me Irresponsible by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn this week though, upon reflection, since we are approaching Valentine’s Day it serves nicely as a classic anthem for delinquent lovers everywhere.  It also features a nicely Lenten catalogue of personal shortcomings…

But I chose it just because it’s a fine song.  Van Heusen did not write very many bad ones and his best are gems:  But Beautiful, Here’s That Rainy Day, Come Fly with Me, Polka Dots and Moonbeams and more.  He worked with several lyricists, most notably Johnny Burke and Sammy Cahn.  It is with Cahn that he wrote Call Me Irresponsible for the movie Daddy’s Delicate Condition.  (They won the Academy Award for Swinging on a Star, which I learned was recorded this very week in February 1944.)

Click on the title in red to hear it.  The lyrics are below.  Cahn once mentioned in an interview that these were among the lyrics of which he was most proud, and with good reason.

Call me irresponsible,

Call me unreliable.

Throw in undependable too.

Do my foolish alibis bore you?

Well, I’m not too clever, I just adore you.

Call me unpredictable.

Tell me I’m impractical.

Rainbows I’m inclined to pursue.

Call me irresponsible.

Yes I’m unreliable.

But it’s undeniably true.

I’m irresponsibly mad for you!