Doris Day (Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S., April 3, 1922… Read Full Bio ↴Doris Day (Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S., April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. After she began her career as a big band singer in 1939, her popularity increased with her first hit recording "Sentimental Journey" (1945). After leaving Les Brown & His Band of Renown to embark on a solo career, she recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967, which made her one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century.

Day's film career began during the latter part of the Classical Hollywood Film era with the 1948 film Romance on the High Seas, and its success sparked her twenty-year career as a motion picture actress. She starred in a series of successful films, including musicals, comedies, and dramas. She played the title role in Calamity Jane (1953), and starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) with James Stewart. Her most successful films were the bedroom comedies she made co-starring Rock Hudson and James Garner, such as Pillow Talk (1959) and Move Over, Darling (1963), respectively. She also co-starred in films with such leading men as Clark Gable, Cary Grant, David Niven, and Rod Taylor. After her final film in 1968, she went on to star in the CBS sitcom The Doris Day Show (1968–1973).

Day was usually one of the top ten singers between 1951 and 1966. As an actress, she became the biggest female film star in the early 1960s, and ranked sixth among the box office performers by 2012. In 2011, she released her 29th studio album, My Heart, which became a UK Top 10 album featuring new material. Among her awards, Day has received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Legend Award from the Society of Singers. In 1960, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and in 1989 was given the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. In 2004, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush followed in 2011 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Career Achievement Award. She was one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Her death was announced by her charity, the Doris Day Animal Foundation, on Monday 13th May 2019.

Discography

chart hits

Year Title Chart Positions
US CB UK
1945 "Sentimental Journey" (w/ Les Brown) 1 — —
"My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" (w/ Les Brown) 1 — —
"'Tain't Me" (w/ Les Brown) 10 — —
"Till the End of Time" (w/ Les Brown) 3 — —
"Aren't You Glad You're You?" (w/ Les Brown) 11 — —
"Come to Baby Do" (w/ Les Brown) / 13 — —
1946 "You Won't Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart)" (w/ Les Brown) 4 — —
"Day by Day" (w/ Les Brown) 15 — —
"I Got the Sun in the Mornin' (and the Moon at Night)" (w/ Les Brown) 10 — —
"The Whole World Is Singing My Song" (w/ Les Brown) 6 — —
1947 "The Christmas Song" (w/ Les Brown) 12 — —
"Sooner or Later" (w/ Les Brown) 13 — —
"Papa, Won't You Dance With Me" 21 — —
1948 "Thoughtless" (w/ Modernaires) 24 — —
"Love Somebody" (w/ Buddy Clark) / 1 — —
"Confess" (w/ Buddy Clark) 16 — —
"Put 'em in a Box, Tie 'em with a Ribbon, and Throw 'em in the Deep Blue Sea" / 27 — —
"It's Magic" 2 — —
"My Darling, My Darling" (w/ Buddy Clark) 7 — —
1949 "Powder Your Face with Sunshine" (w/ Buddy Clark) 16 — —
"Again" 2 — —
"Everywhere You Go" 22 — —
"Let's Take an Old-Fashioned Walk" (w/ Frank Sinatra) 17 — —
"Now That I Need You" 20 — —
"Canadian Capers" 15 — —
"Bluebird on Your Windowsill" 19 — —
1950 "Quicksilver" 20 — —
"I Said My Pajamas (and Put on My Prayers)" 21 — —
"Enjoy Yourself (It's Later than You Think)" 24 — —
"Hoop-Dee-Doo" 17 — —
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" 9 — —
"I Didn't Slip, I Wasn't Pushed, I Fell" 19 — —
"A Bushel and a Peck" 16 — —
1951 "It's a Lovely Day Today" 30 — —
"Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)" 10 — —
"Shanghai" 7 — —
"Domino" 21 — —
1952 "A Guy Is a Guy" 1 — —
"Sugarbush" (w/ Frankie Laine) 7 12 8
"When I Fall in Love" 20 — —
"No Two People" (w/ Donald O'Connor) 25 — —
"My Love and Devotion" — 31 10
"The Cherries" — 39 —
"A Full Time Job" (w/ Johnnie Ray) / 20 21 11
"Ma Says, Pa Says" (w/ Johnnie Ray) 23 28 12
1953 "Mister Tap Toe" 10 11 —
"When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)" 29 — —
"Candy Lips" (w/ Johnnie Ray) / 17 18 —
"Let's Walk That-a-Way" (w/ Johnnie Ray) — 31 4
"Kiss Me Again, Stranger" / 30 — —
"A Purple Cow" 25 — —
"Choo Choo Train (Ch-Ch-Foo) 20 — —
1954 "Secret Love" 1 1 1
"The Black Hills of Dakota" — — 7
"Lost in Loveliness" — 25 —
"I Speak to the Stars" 16 17 —
"Someone Else's Roses" — 32 —
"If I Give My Heart to You" / 3 2 4
"Anyone Can Fall in Love" 27 41 —
"Ready, Willing, and Able" / — 31 7
"Hold Me in Your Arms" — 39 —
1955 "Foolishly Yours" — 25 —
"Love Me Or Leave Me" — — 20
"I'll Never Stop Loving You" 13 14 17
"Ooh Bang Jiggily Jang" 83 — —
1956 "Let It Ring" 51 — —
"Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" 2 3 1
"Julie" / 64 40 —
"Love in a Home" 79 — —
"The Party's Over" 63 47 —
1957 "Twelve O'Clock Tonight" 68 — —
1958 "Teacher's Pet" 56 36 —
"A Very Precious Love" — — 16
"Everybody Loves a Lover" 6 6 25
"Tunnel of Love" 43 53 —
1959 "Love Me in the Daytime" 100 51 —
1960 "Any Way the Wind Blows" 50 109 —
"Please Don't Eat the Daisies" 102 102 —
"A Perfect Understanding" 111 — —
1962 "Lover Come Back" 98 — —
1964 "Move Over Darling" — — 8
"Send Me No Flowers" 135 — —
1967 "Sorry" * — — —
* "Sorry" made the US AC charts at #19.

Albums

10" LP
You're My Thrill (1949)
Young Man with a Horn (1950, soundtrack with Harry James)
Tea for Two (1950, soundtrack)
Lullaby of Broadway (1951, soundtrack)
On Moonlight Bay (1951, soundtrack)
I'll See You in My Dreams (1951, soundtrack)
By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953, soundtrack)
Calamity Jane (1953, soundtrack)
Young at Heart (1954, soundtrack with Frank Sinatra)

12" LPs

Love Me or Leave Me (1955, soundtrack)
Day Dreams (1955, expanded re-issue of You're My Thrill)
Day By Day (1956)
The Pajama Game (1957, soundtrack)
Day by Night (1957)
Hooray for Hollywood (2 volumes, 1958)
Cuttin' Capers (1959)
What Every Girl Should Know (1960)
Show Time (1960)
Listen to Day (1960)
Bright and Shiny (1961)
I Have Dreamed (1961)
Duet (with André Previn, 1962)
You'll Never Walk Alone (1962)
Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962, soundtrack with film cast)
Annie Get Your Gun (1963, with Robert Goulet)
Love Him (1963)
The Doris Day Christmas Album (1964)
With a Smile and a Song (1964)
Latin for Lovers (1965)
Doris Day's Sentimental Journey (1965)
The Love Album (recorded in 1967, released in 1994)
My Heart (2011)

Singles
Hit records:

(with Les Brown's Band of Renown)
"Sentimental Journey"
5,000,000+ sales
"My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time"
1,000,000+ sales
(As a solo performer)
"It's Magic"
1,000,000+ sales
"Again"
"Love Somebody" (duet with Buddy Clark)
1,000,000+ sales
"Confess" (duet with Buddy Clark) (also done by Patti Page)
"Bewitched"
1,000,000+ sales
"Shanghai"
"Sugarbush" (duet with Frankie Laine)
1,000,000+ sales
"Mister Tap Toe"
"Secret Love"
1,000,000+ sales
"If I Give My Heart to You" (also done by Denise Lor)
"I'll Never Stop Loving You"
1,000,000+ sales
"Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" ("Que Sera, Sera")
1,000,000+ sales
"Everybody Loves a Lover"
"Move Over Darling"

Ma Says Pa Says
Doris Day Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Go tell your mother, you′re stepping out with me, Say that we'll be dancing and you won′t be home 'til three.
Go tell your father he needn't pace the floor, Promise at the stroke of three you′ll tip toe through the door. I told my mother and, I told my father and
They (Yes?), say... (What did they say?)Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on dancing, Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on dancing, For if we keep on dancing, we won′t start romancing, But if we start romancing, we won't keep on dancing. Go tell your mother, I′m taking you out to dine
Tell her this here restaurant the cooking is divine
Go tell your father, You've got an appetite
Say that you′re so hungry you could eat all through the night.
I told my mother and, I told my father and
They (Yes?), say... (What did they say?)Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on eating

Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on eating
For if we keep on eating, our lips can't be meeting, But if our lips are meeting, we won′t keep on eating. Go tell your mother, tonight you've got a date; Say that you and I will be attending a little debate.
Go tell your father, I'm gonna make a speech
Say the lecture will be held upon a sandy beach.
I told my mother and, I told my father and
They (Yes?), say... (What did they say?)Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on talking
Ma says, Pa says we must keep on talking
For if we keep on talking, we won′t go out walking
But if we go out walking, we won′t keep on talking.
We'll date and debate

We′ll meet and eat
We'll walk and talk beneath the moon′Cos Ma says, Pa says,... We can marry soon

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Doris Day's "Ma Says Pa Says" revolve around a young couple who wants to spend time together, but they have to deceive the girl's parents in order to do so. The song's protagonist urges his girlfriend to inform her parents that they are going out to dance and will be back only when the clock strikes three. However, when he informs his own parents, they ask him to keep dancing and not to start romancing. Similarly, when the young couple goes out to eat, they are supposed to keep eating and not let their lips meet, according to the girl's parents. And when they go out for a little debate, the boy tells his girlfriend to say that they will be attending a lecture on the sandy beach. The parents conclude that they should keep talking and not go out walking in case they start getting romantically involved.

The song thus demonstrates the conservative values of the time that dictated couples had to adhere to certain decorum and chaperoning in order to avoid scandal or sin. The lyrics playfully satirize these values, presenting a comical and witty commentary on the rules and restrictions governing romantic relationships in the 1950s.

Line by Line Meaning

Go tell your mother, you′re stepping out with me, Say that we'll be dancing and you won′t be home 'til three.
Tell your mother that you are going out with me and we will dance late till night.

Go tell your father he needn't pace the floor, Promise at the stroke of three you′ll tip toe through the door.
Tell your father he need not worry and we will come back quietly at three.

Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on dancing, Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on dancing, For if we keep on dancing, we won′t start romancing, But if we start romancing, we won't keep on dancing.
Our parents suggest us to continue dancing till late so that we won’t be tempted to do anything else, but if we start romancing, we might stop dancing.

Go tell your mother, I′m taking you out to dine Tell her this here restaurant the cooking is divine Go tell your father, You've got an appetite Say that you′re so hungry you could eat all through the night.
Tell your mother that I am taking you to a restaurant with delicious food and that you are very hungry and can eat all night long.

Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on eating Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on eating For if we keep on eating, our lips can't be meeting, But if our lips are meeting, we won′t keep on eating.
Our parents suggest us to keep on eating instead of kissing, as eating would prevent us from kissing.

Go tell your mother, tonight you've got a date; Say that you and I will be attending a little debate. Go tell your father, I'm gonna make a speech Say the lecture will be held upon a sandy beach.
Tell your mother that you have a date with me and we will attend a debate, and tell your father I will be giving a speech on a beach.

Ma says, Pa says, we must keep on talking Ma says, Pa says we must keep on talking For if we keep on talking, we won′t go out walking But if we go out walking, we won′t keep on talking.
Our parents suggest us to keep on talking instead of going for a walk, as if we go for a walk, we might stop talking.

We'll date and debate We′ll meet and eat We'll walk and talk beneath the moon′Cos Ma says, Pa says,... We can marry soon
We will continue dating, debating, meeting and eating, walking, and talking under the moon, as our parents suggest, and we may soon plan to get married.

Writer(s): J. Marais

Contributed by Bailey L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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