From “Annie Get Your Gun”, 1946
Words and music by Irving Berlin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Folks are dumb where I come from
They ain’t had any learnin’
Still they’re happy as can be
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Folks like us could never fuss
With schools and books and learnin’
Still we’ve gone from A to Z
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
You don’t have to know how to read or write
When you’re out with a feller
In the pale moonlight
You don’t have to look in a book to find
What he thinks of the moon
And what is on his mind
That comes natur’lly
That comes natur’lly
My uncle out in Texas
Can’t even write his name
He signs his checks with “x’s”
But they cash them just the same
If you saw my Paw and Maw
You’d no they had no learnin’
Still they raised a family
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Doin’ what comes natur’lly - Uncle Jed has never read
An almanac on drinkin’
Still he’s always on a spree
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Sister Sal who’s musical
Has never had a lesson
Still she’s learned to sing off-key
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
You don’t have to go to a private school
Not to turn up your bustle to a stubborn mule
You don’t have to have a professor’s dome
Not to go for the honey
When the bee’s at home
That comes natur’lly
That comes natur’lly
My tiny baby brother
Who’s never read a book
Knows one sex from the other
All he had to do was look
Grandpaw Bill lives on the hill
With someone he just married
There he is at ninety-three
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Doin’ what comes natur’lly
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: