Knitwear Guy

One of my favourite movies is Easter Parade with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. I think it was shown three years in a row, once, and I saw it every time. Then there was a gap of a couple of years before they screened it again, but I was waiting for it. Once of these days I'm going to have to buy my own copy.

There's one number in the movie, though, that just irks me. For one thing, it doesn't belong there - it's a showcase for some guy who isn't even in the movie. Well, he is in the movie, because he's in this number, but he isn't a character or anything. Basically, it's one of those "Hey, this is a movie musical, let's show off what kind of fancy things we can do with movie musicals and give our art-department a work-out" kind of number that peppered a lot of films of that era.

For another thing, it's really annoying. The dude-who-isn't-really-in-the-movie sings in one of those warbly tenors that always bug me, while dancers pose in "living" magazine covers before stepping down onto the sound stage floor to indulge in a really boring dance. A really, really boring dance. And the number itself? Some pointless piece of fluff called "The Girl on the Magazine Cover".

Even though I've seen the movie at least four or five times, all I can remember of the lyrics to this song are "I'm in love with the girl on the magazine cover". I've pretty much blocked the rest of it out.

Except, for some reason, it popped into my head a few days ago and refuses to leave. Just that line: "I'm in love with the girl on the magazine cover".

And for the last couple of days I've been fighting the urge to write a "response" to the song something along these lines:

I quite fancy
The fellow in the 90s knitwear catalogue
(catalogue)
The cute blonde in
The pullover with elongated rhombus stitch
(rhombus stitch)
He's ruggedly handsome
Yet looks soft to touch
Is there any wonder
I like him so much?
I'd like to go strolling
With him arm-in-arm
You could say I've fallen
For his worsted charm
For
I quite fancy
The fellow in the 90s knitwear catalogue
(catalogue)

Perhaps I haven't been fighting that urge as much as I could have...