Anything You Can Do

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"Anything You Can Do" is a song composed by Irving Berlin for the 1946 Broadway musical, Annie Get Your Gun.^[1] The song is a spirited duet, with one male singer and one female singer attempting to outdo each other in increasingly complex tasks.

In the musical, the song sets the scene for the climactic sharpshooting contest between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Its most memorable lines are, "Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you." The song was first performed in Annie Get Your Gun by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton.

During the song, they argue playfully about who can, for example, sing softer, sing higher, sing sweeter, and hold a note for longer, and boast of their abilities and accomplishments, such as opening safes and living on bread and cheese, although Annie always seems to counter Frank's argument. Neither can "bake a pie," though.

Notable versions

• Nicole Ferry and Howard Keel (1950)
• Betty Hutton and Howard Keel in the 1950 film version of the musical
• Doris Day and Robert Goulet (1963)
• Dusty Springfield and Freddie Paris on Bandstand (1967).
• Robert Morse and an office computer in That's Life (1968 TV series), episode S1E11 "Bobby's Pink Slip"^[2]
• Ethel Merman and Miss Piggy (1976) in The Muppet Show, episode 1.22
• Fran Drescher and Madeline Zima (1994) in The Nanny, episode S1E22 "I Don't Remember Mama"
• Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm, Gatorade "Michael vs. Mia" commercial (1997), performed by Sophia Ramos
• Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat in the 1999 Broadway revival version of the musical
• John Barrowman and Ruthie Henshall in The Sound of Musicals (2006)
• The Kidsongs Kids on their "Ride the Roller Coaster" video and DVD
• Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in a 2008 Mercedes-Benz commercial with Mika Häkkinen performing the last line.
• American rapper J. Cole used the "Anything you can do" line in his single Who Dat.
• Blaire Elbert and Madeline Powell Cactus Cuties Performed at Cactus Theatere in Texas.
• Barbara Walters and Howard Cosell on Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell in 1975 debating who interviews people better.
• Lindsay Pearce sang a mashup of Anything Goes/Anything You Can Do in the Glee third season premiere, The Purple Piano Project.
• The 116 Clique sampled the opening lines of the song in their song "Envy" off their 2011 album Man Up.

Other recorded versions

• Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney (from "Carousel")
• Bing Crosby and Dick Haymes with The Andrews Sisters (1947)
• Mary Martin and John Raitt (1957)
• Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell (1966)
• Ethel Merman and Neilson Taylor (1973)
• Judy Garland and Howard Keel (Pre-Production of film Annie Get Your Gun)
• The Majors
• Von Trapp Children (Song is on their Live in Concert DVD.)

Variants

• Peter Tosh: "I'm the Toughest"

References