My Cousin In Milwaukee

(album: The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books - 1994)

Once I visited my cousin, in Milwaukee, USA
She got boyfriends by the dozen, when she sang in a lowdown way
She was a positive sensation
The songs that she sang would never miss
My cousin was my inspiration
That's how I got like this

I got a cousin in Milwaukee
She's got a voice so squawky
And though she's tall and kind of gawky
Oh, how she gets the men

Her singing isn't operatic
It's got a lot of static
What makes your heart get acrobatic
Nine times out of ten

When she sings hot, you can't be solemn
It sends the shivers up and down your spinal column
When she sings blue, the men shout, "What stuff!"
That baby is hot stuff

So if you like the way I sing songs,
If you think that I'm a wow
You can thank my squawky cousin from Milwaukee
Because she taught me how

When she sings hot, you can't be solemn
It sends the shivers up and down your spinal column
When she sings blue, the men shout, "What stuff!"
That baby is hot stuff

So if you like the way I sing songs,
If you think that I'm a wow
You can thank my squawky cousin from Milwaukee
Because she taught me how