"Keepin' Myself for You" is a song with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Sidney Clare. It was written for the 1930 Pre-Code RKO musical film Hit the Deck, released in New York on 14 January 1930, where Jack Oakie and Polly Walker perform it as Bilge and Looloo. The earliest known recording was made by The High Hatters, conducted by Leonard Joy with a vocal refrain by Belle Mann, for Victor on 17 January 1930. It was issued in April 1930 as a 78 rpm single, coupled with "Blue Is the Night".
The song is a fox-trot show tune of the period and later became a jazz vocal standard. Many artists have recorded it since, among them Bert Lown, Paul Specht, Sam Lanin, Lee Wiley, Ann Miller and Tony Martin, Mel Tormé, Rita Reys, Artie Shaw and the Gramercy 5 (1940), and Keith Ingham.
