I Cain't Say No

I Cain't Say No

"I Cain't Say No" is a song from the musical play "Oklahoma!" written by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II.

In the song, the secondary character Ado Annie Carnes describes her sexual awakening (albeit in highly euphemistic terms) and the conflicts that it brings. Ado Annie has two principal suitors, a Persian traveling salesman Ali Hakim, and the cowboy Will Parker, recently returned from an excursion to Kansas City. She describes to Laurey the attention she is now receiving from men "since she filled out" and her inability to say "no" to their advances.

Sample Lyrics

"It ain't so much a question of not knowing what to do."
"I knowed what's right and wrong since I was ten. "
"I heared a lot of stories and I reckon they are true"
"About how girls're put upon by men."
"I know I mustn't fall into the pit,"
"But when I'm with a feller,"
"I fergit!"

"I'm just a girl who cain't say no,"
"I'm in a terrible fix"
"I always say "come on, let's go!"
"Jist when I orta say nix..."

The song is sung by Polly in an episode of Fawlty Towers.

Poe performed the song for the soundtrack to the film "Welcome to Woop Woop," released in 1998.

Amanda Palmer performed it with the Boston Pops in 2008. Not coincidentally, Palmer also recorded another Rodgers/Hammerstein song "What's The Use Of Wond'rin?" from "Carousel" for her album "Who Killed Amanda Palmer".

ee also

*"All Er Nuthin'," near the end of the musical where Will extracts a promise of fidelity from Annie, and vice versa.


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