Yankee Doodle Dandy

And now, ladies and gentlemen, this being I Am An American Day, as a special attractor, I'm going to offer a musical salute to a great American, George M. Cohan.

The orchestra is going to play a medley of some of his most popular song hits, which are now in Jimmy Cagney's new picture, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Take it, boys.

I'm a Yankee Doodle Bandit, a Yankee Doodle do as I. Yankee Doodles came to London just to wear the pony.

I watch it every summer and I just, I can't imagine summer without it.

And it's Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Um, I have to watch it every summer and, uh, it's just, uh, For me, for my money, it's one of my favorite Cagney performances.

It screams Americana in the best way possible.

And it just, it's so perfect.

That and I thought it was too on the nose just because I just was on the show to pick 1776.

But Yankee Doodle Dandy and 1776, those are my quintessential 4th of July movies.

Have you heard, because now everybody, it's becoming a trend too.

They went off, they did the horse thing, and all the people were reacting to it and saying what was going on.

Like Yankee Doodle Dandy in the race.

I'm James Cagney, you know, and it worked by like, again, but we also see her on the horse.

We see the Fox hunt going on.

Happy birthday, George, wherever you might be.

And by the way, tonight, Yankee Doodle Dandy is going to be on with Jimmy Cagney.

Don't miss that one.

Here's a very unusual one.

know,

I try to always say is that, um, you know, for anybody who just kind of just knew him from Seinfeld, you know, he was just, they didn't realize how musically talented he was, you know, that was his big thing, you know, in high school and starting out, you know, I talked to a number of people, and I mentioned the name, they said, oh my god, he was on Broadway, he sang, he danced, I said, yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, it's kind of like, I'm a big James Cagney fan, you know, and People were I remember when my favorite movie of all time is Yankee Doodle Dandy.

You know,

I've probably seen it about 45 times.

It almost

reminds me of the line in Yankee Doodle Dandy where they – Cohen goes to Dietz and Goff's, the music publisher, and they said, you know, they offer some money for the song.

And they said, well, we're also talking to this, you know, Jones's.

And so, well, what does Jones's wife's money do to be any better than my wife's money?

It can only happen once.

It's called Yankee Doodle Dandy with Jimmy Cagney.

Forget about it.

It's, uh, it's, it's just one of those, you know, great films of all time.

So anyway, Trekkies, thumbs up.

Next up from the AFI 100 Movie thingy-bobble-doodle-noodle thing, Yankee Doodle Dandy, which was-

... number 100 on the 1998 list, and as we are now doing the 2007 list, it's up to 98.

For some reason, it moved up two thingies.

Uh-huh.

Star- starring James Cagney and a bunch of other people.

And, uh, so Cohan's the guy who did, well, Yankee Doodle Dandy from the title, but also Over There, which if anybody remembers, 'cause I know all of you were there to experience it firsthand, was a big song during World War I.

Yankee Doodle, keep it up.

[laughs] Yankee Doodle dandy.

Mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy.

[whimsical music]