Born in tiny North, South Carolina to Mamie Kitt, who was of Cherokee and African-American descent, and an American father (surname Kitt) of German and Dutch descent, she was raised by her maternal aunt Anna Mae Riley, whom she believed was her mother up until after Riley's death, when she was sent to live in New York City with her real mother.
Kitt began her career as a member of the Katherine Dunham Company and made her film debut with them in Casbah (1948). A talented singer with a distinctive voice, her hits include Let's Do It, C'est Si Bon (It's So Good), Just an Old Fashioned Girl, Monotonous, Love for Sale, I'd Rather Be Burned as a Witch, Uska Dara, Mink, Schmink, Under the Bridges of Paris, and arguably her most recognizable hit, the sexily sung Christmas song Santa Baby. She sang quite a few songs in French, a language she picked up during her years performing in Europe, but she never lost her American accent, which made her French songs sound rather amusing to native French speakers. She dabbled in other languages as well, which she demonstrated in many of the live recordings of her cabaret performances.
In 1950, Orson Welles gave her her first starring role, as Helen of Troy in his staging of Dr. Faustus. A few years later, she was cast in the revue New Faces of 1952, introducing "Monotonous", "C'est Si Bon" and "Santa Baby", three songs with which she continues to be identified. During her run, 20th Century Fox filmed a version of the play. Welles and Kitt allegedly had a torrid affair during her run in Shinbone Alley, which earned her the nickname by Welles as "the most exciting woman in the world". In 1958, Kitt made her feature film debut opposite Sidney Poitier in The Mark of the Hawk. Throughout the rest of the 1950s and early 1960s, Kitt would work on and off in film, television and on nightclub stages. In the late 1960s television series Batman, she played Catwoman after Julie Newmar left the role. This was the role for which she would best be remembered, owing to her purring feline drawl.
In 1968, however, Kitt encountered a substantial professional setback after she made anti-war statements during a White House luncheon that reportedly made First Lady Lady Bird Johnson weep uncontrollably. Professionally exiled from the U.S., she devoted her energies to overseas performances before returning to New York in a triumphant turn in the Broadway spectacle Timbuktu! (a version of the perennial Kismet set in Africa) in 1978. In the musical, one song gives a 'recipe' for mahoun, a preparation of cannabis, in which her sultry purring rendition of the refrain "constantly stirring with a long wooden spoon" was distinctive.
In 1984, she returned to hit music with a dance song, Where Is My Man; the first certified Gold record of her career. Kitt found new audiences in nightclubs across the country, including a whole new generation of gay male fans, and she responded by frequently giving benefit performances in support of HIV/AIDS organizations.
In 2000, Kitt again returned to Broadway in the short but notable run of the revival of the 1920s-themed, The Wild Party, opposite Mandy Patinkin and Toni Collette. In 2003, she replaced Chita Rivera in Nine. In recent years she had also appeared as the Wicked Witch in the North American national touring company of The Wizard of Oz.
One of her more unusual roles was as Kaa the python in a 1994 BBC Radio adaptation of The Jungle Book. Kitt lent her distinctive voice to the role of Yzma in Disney's The Emperor's New Groove and also did other voiceover work such as the voice of Queen Vexus on the animated TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot. She continued her role as Yzma on the spin-off TV series of The Emperor's New Groove, The Emperor's New School.
In recent years, Kitt's annual appearances in New York made her a fixture of the Manhattan cabaret scene. She took the stage at venues such as the Ballroom and, more recently, the Café Carlyle to explore and define her highly stylized image, alternating between signature songs (such as "Old Fashioned Millionaire"), which emphasized a witty, mercenary world-weariness, and less familiar repertoire, much of which she performed with an unexpected ferocity and bite that presented her as a survivor with a seemingly bottomless reservoir of resilience - her version of Here's to Life, frequently used as a closing number, was a sterling example of the latter. This side of her later performances is reflected in at least one of her recordings, Thinking Jazz, which preserves a series of performances with a small jazz combo that took place in the early 1990s in Germany, and which includes both standards (Smoke Gets in Your Eyes) and numbers (such as Something May Go Wrong) that seem more specifically tailored to her talents; one version of the CD includes as bonus performances a fierce, angry Yesterdays and a live take of "C'est Si Bon" that good-humoredly satirizes her sex-kitten persona.
Personal life
Kitt was married to John William McDonald, an associate of a real-estate investment company, from 1960 to 1965. They had one child, a daughter, Kitt (b. 1962, married Charles Lawrence Shapiro); and two grandchildren, Jason and Rachel Shapiro.
Eartha Kitt died of colon cancer on Christmas Day, December 25, 2008.
I Love Men
Eartha Kitt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I was alone
Alone
Big empty bed all on my own
Alone
All in my glory such a sad story
Moment by moment I go mad
So mad.
You ask?
Why did he leave
No
I don't know
They go.
Ill find another
Maybe his brother
I?ll move to the next without a pause
Because
I love men. What can I do? I love men they're no good for you.
In the end they always resist and pretend you didn't exist.
But my friend
They somehow persist and remain at the top of my list.
I love men
I love men
Love them over and over and over again.
I love men it's always the same
I love men I'm bad at the game.
Can't defend the way that I feel
It's no trend the feeling is real.
Now and then I try to conceal where and when I choose to reveal.
I love men
I love men
Love them over and over and over again.
Good times may come and they may go. I know.
Money goes fast but it comes slow
So slow
One thing is certain
Love's final curtain
Won?t leave me bereft while there is one man left.
I love men
It's going to last
I love men
The feeling won?t pass.
I love men wherever I go
All these men they're haunting me so.
Miles of men as far as I see
Smiles of men they're smiling at me.
I love men
I love men
Love them over and over and over again.
I love men. What can I do?
I love men they're no good for you.
In the end they always resist and pretend you didn't exist.
But my friend
They somehow persist and remain at the top of my list.
I love men
I love men
Love them over and over and over again.
I love men it's always the same
I love men I'm bad at the game.
Can't defend the way that I feel
It's no trend the feeling is real.
Now and then I try to conceal where and when I choose to reveal.
I love men
I love men
Love them over and over and over again.
I love men
It's going to last
I love men
The feeling will pass. . . .
I love men
It's going to last
I love men
The feeling will pass.
I love men wherever I go
All these men they're haunting me so.
Miles of men as far as I see
Smiles of men they're smiling at me.
I love men
I love men
Love them over and over and over again.
I love men. What can I do? I love men they're no good for you.
In the end they always resist and pretend you didn't exist.
But my friend
They somehow persist and remain at the top of my list.
I love men
I love men
Love them over and over and over again.
The lyrics of Eartha Kitt's song "I Love Men" are centered around the theme of love and relationships. In the song, Eartha Kitt talks about the emptiness she feels when she's alone. She narrates a sad story, where she moves on from one man to another because she loves men. She admits that she's "bad" at the game of love and that she cannot defend the way she feels. She goes on to reveal that good times may come and go, but love's final curtain will not leave her bereft as long as one man remains.
Eartha Kitt sings about how men often resist and pretend that the relationship never existed in the first place. However, this does not deter her. She admits that she loves men despite knowing that they are no good for her. In the end, the song emphasizes the fact that she loves men immensely and will continue to love them over and over again.
Overall, the song's lyrics can be interpreted as an expression of Eartha Kitt's love for men, despite the risks and disappointments that come with it. She finds joy in the moment and moves on when it's over, hoping to find another man to love along the way.
Line by Line Meaning
Then came the night
After a seemingly perpetual wait, the anticipated night arrived.
I was alone
I was in loneliness.
Alone
Completely by myself.
Big empty bed all on my own
I was lying all alone on a huge bed, which was empty.
Alone
Enduring the pain of being by myself.
All in my glory such a sad story
Even if everything seemed to be perfect in my life, my story was miserable.
Moment by moment I go mad
With each passing moment, I feel like losing my sanity.
So mad.
Losing my mind to the madness.
How did it come this pretty path
How did I end up on this supposedly pretty path of my life?
You ask?
You may ask.
Why did he leave
The question of why he left is still unanswered.
No
I do not have an answer.
I don't know
I am unsure why he left.
They go.
But men leave.
I'll find another
I will search and find someone else.
Maybe his brother
Perhaps I will end up with his brother.
I'll move to the next without a pause
I will move on to the next man without any hesitation.
Because
The reason being.
I love men. What can I do? I love men they're no good for you.
I love men, although I know they can't be good for me.
In the end they always resist and pretend you didn't exist.
Ultimately, they will resist and act as if they never knew you existed.
But my friend, They somehow persist and remain at the top of my list.
However, men continue to be on the top of the list of the things I love.
I love men I love men Love them over and over and over again.
I love men so much that I want to experience that love over and over again.
I love men it's always the same, I love men I'm bad at the game.
Loving men never changes, yet I am terrible at handling this game.
Can't defend the way that I feel
I cannot justify the way I feel.
It's no trend the feeling is real.
It's not a temporary fad; the feeling is genuine.
Now and then I try to conceal where and when I choose to reveal.
Occasionally, I choose to hide, whereas sometimes, I reveal myself.
Good times may come and they may go. I know.
I am aware that pleasant times may not last long and may disappear eventually.
Money goes fast but it comes slow So slow
Money is spent quickly but takes a long time to come in.
One thing is certain Love's final curtain Won?t leave me bereft while there is one man left.
One thing about love is sure that it will not leave me alone if there is still one man left in my life.
I love men It's going to last I love men The feeling won?t pass.
My love for men will last, and the feeling will not subside.
I love men wherever I go All these men they're haunting me so.
Men continue to haunt me wherever I go, and I can't resist my love for them.
Miles of men as far as I see Smiles of men they're smiling at me.
I can see men all around me, and they are happy to see me too.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JACQUES MORALI, BRUCE VILANCH, FREDERICK ZARR, FREDERICK I ZARR
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind