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"Anything You Can Do" is a song composed by Irving Berlin for the 1946 Broadway musical, Annie Get Your Gun.^[1] The song is a spirited duet, with one male singer and one female singer attempting to out-do each other in increasingly complex tasks.

In the musical, the song sets the scene for the climactic sharpshooting contest between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Its most memorable lines are, "Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you." The song was first performed in Annie Get Your Gun by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton.

During the song, they argue playfully about who can, for example, sing louder, sing higher, sing sweeter, and hold a note for longer, and boast of their abilities and accomplishments, such as opening safes and living on bread and cheese, although Annie always seems to counter Frank's argument. But neither can "bake a pie".

Contents 1 Notable versions 2 Other recorded versions 3 Variants 4 References

[edit] Notable versions

• Judy Garland and Howard Keel (1950)
• Betty Hutton and Howard Keel in the 1950 film version of the musical
• Doris Day and Robert Goulet (1963)
• Robert Morse and an office computer in That's Life (1968 TV series), episode S1E11 "Bobby's Pink Slip"^[2]
• Ethel Merman and Miss Piggy (1976) in The Muppet Show, episode 1.22
• Fran Drescher and Madeline Zima (1994) in The Nanny, episode S1E22 "I Don't Remember Mama"
• Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm, Gatorade "Michael vs. Mia" commercial (1997), performed by Sophia Ramos
• Bernadette Peters and Tom Wopat in the 1999 Broadway revival version of the musical
• John Barrowman and Ruthie Henshall in The Sound of Musicals (2006)
• The Kidsongs Kids on their "Ride the Roller Coaster" video and DVD

[edit] Other recorded versions

• Mary Martin and John Raitt (1957)
• Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell (1966)
• Ethel Merman and Neilson Taylor (1973)
• The Andrews Sisters and Bing Crosby

[edit] Variants

• Peter Tosh: "I'm the Toughest"

[edit] References

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