The song portrays a South American woman with universally recognized allure: "When she dances by, / Señoritas stare / And caballeros sigh."[2] As one of Mercer's biographers explained the initial popularity: "Latin America, the one part of the world not engulfed in World War II, became a favorite topic for songs and films for Americans who wanted momentarily to forget about the conflagration."[3]
Charted recordings
The most popular recorded version of the song was made by the performers who introduced it in the film: the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra with vocalists Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly. The recording was released in January 1942 by Decca Records as catalog number 4123. The record first reached the Billboard charts on April 10, 1942, and it lasted 15 weeks on the chart, including six weeks at #1.[4] The lyrics in this version differ slightly from those in the movie. On the record, Eberly sings "And I've seen toasts to Tangerine / Raised in every bar across the Argentine,"[1] the lyric that became standard. In the movie at that point, the line is "And I've seen times when Tangerine / Had the bourgeoisie believing she were queen."
A disco instrumental version by the Salsoul Orchestra brought the song back into the U.S. top 20 in 1976.[5] It also reached #11 on the US, Easy Listening chart.
In 1976, All In the Family gave a nod to the song in the episode "Archie's Operation" when Archie Bunker burst into it repeatedly to interrupt son-in-law Mike's efforts to help pay for Archie's surgery.
The Pet Milk company used the melody for a 1960s liquid diet product called Sego. The opening line "Tangerine, she is all they say" was replaced by "There she goes, she's a Sego girl."
The tune later became the jingle for Pillsbury's Figurines, a diet aid, during the 1970s.
