You Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby

POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL - 1936

Little Barbara Barry (Shirley Temple) is sent off to school by her busy, widowed father, who's a soap manufacturer. When her nurse is injured at the train station en route, Barbara finds herself alone in town. She is found by a pair (Jack Haley and Alice Faye) of down-on-their-luck radio song-and-dance performers. Barbara masquerades as their daughter, and they get work sponsored by a rival soap company. Barbara is ultimately reunited with her father when he hears her on the radio.

My favorite scene is the performance of this number:

YOU GOTTA EAT YOUR SPINACH, BABY
Mack Gordon, Harry Revel

Alice Faye, Jack Haley & Shirley Temple (Film Soundtrack) - 1937

HALEY:
I want your cheeks to be rosey,
Your lips like the color of wine.
Darling, the way that people will say that
"My, but you're looking so fine!"

FAYE & HALEY:
Oooooooooohhhhhhhh ...

FAYE:
I want you strong as Apollo,
A sturdy and masculine sheik.
Darling, the way that people will say that,
"My, what a gorgeous physique!"
If you want to be like I want you to be,
Follow this carefully:

You've gotta eat your spinach, baby,
That's the proper thing to do.
It'll keep you kind of healthy too
And what it did for Popeye, it will do for you.

You've gotta eat your spinach, baby,
To give you lots of TNT.
For whenever you're caressing me,
Then you'll need every vitamin from A to Z.

Please take my advice;
Kissing is dangerous, doctors all agree.

HALEY:
I'll take your advice,
But don't ever kiss anybody but me.

FAYE:
You've gotta eat your spinach, baby,
If you do you can't go wrong.
For it's gonna make you nice and strong;
And the stronger you are, the longer you'll live,
And the longer I'll have to love you.

TEMPLE:
Pardon me, did I hear you say Spinach?

FAYE & HALEY:
Spinach!

TEMPLE:
I represent all the kids of the nation,
Who sent me to see you about it.
I bring the message from the kids of the nation
To tell you we can do without it.

Kindly listen to me,
I'm not alone in my plea.
There are dozens and dozens and dozens of us,
Nephews and nieces and cousins of us,
They want me to say ... Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

No spinach, take away that awful greenery!
No spinach, give us lots of jelly beanery.
We positively refuse to budge,
We'd like lollipops and we like fudge,
But no spinach, Hosanna!

FAYE & HALEY:
You've got to eat your spinach, baby.

TEMPLE:
No, no, no, no, I'm singing to you.
No, no, no, no, Hallelujah!
Spinach, stay away from my door!

FAYE & HALEY:
We'll tell the bogey man,
The big big, bad bad, bogey bogey man.

TEMPLE:
Oh, that's just a bluff -
You know we don't believe that stuff.

FAYE & HALEY:
You gotta eat your spinach, baby,
Children have to do as they are told.

TEMPLE:
Yes Sir, yes Ma'am.

FAYE & HALEY:
Children shouldn't be so very bold.

TEMPLE:
Yes Sir, yes Ma'am.

FAYE & HALEY:
Or you'll grow up to be a meanie when your old.

TEMPLE:
Yes Sir, yes Ma'am.

I will to tell all the kids of the nation
Who sent me to see you about it,
Children have to do as they are told.

HALEY:
Umm-hmm.

TEMPLE:
Children shouldn't be so very bold.

HALEY:
Umm-hmm.

TEMPLE:
Or you will be a meanie when you're old.
So, okay...

ALL:
Spinach!

They just don't make 'em like that any more - songs or little girls.

I couldn't find a sound file of the movie version, but here's one from the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (1936, vocal Edythe Wright).

See, it did work for him!