My Heart Belongs to Daddy is a Cole Porter song written for the 1938 Broadway musical Leave It to Me!, which opened on November 9, 1938. The original performer was Mary Martin, portraying Dolly Winslow, the sugar daddy’s protégée. In the number she performs a provocative striptease at a Siberian railway station and sings that as long as she has her daddy she may flirt with other men but won’t follow through. The song opens with a bright introductory verse that moves from major to minor, and the chorus delivers playful innuendo about the word daddy, including lines about a caddy and Finnan haddie. It became a hit in 1938, with Mary Martin’s original cast recording and a Larry Clinton with Bea Wain version both charting highly. Over the years it has been covered by many artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Marilyn Monroe in the film Let’s Make Love, and Anna Nicole Smith, and it is regarded as a musical theatre number and jazz standard with a long pop culture life.
