Cole Porter’s number was introduced by Virginia Bruce in the 1936 MGM musical Born to Dance. Hal Kemp’s recording hit the charts in October but was topped by Ray Noble’s effort in December, 1936:

• Ray Noble and His Orchestra (1936, Al Bowlly, vocal, #3)
• Hal Kemp and His Orchestra (1936, Skinnay Ennis, vocal, #8)
• Stan Freberg (1951, vocal, #11)

Although Porter had written music for a number of films, Born to Dance would be the first time he had written a complete score. It also was his first MGM musical for which he was getting $3,000 a week, quite a considerable sum in 1936.

Cole was asked to meet with the producers, writers and director of Born to Dance to help consult on the film and to then demonstrate the music he had written. Porter was uneasy with having to perform his material by himself but had to acquiesce. In the George Eels biography, The Life That Late He Led: A Biography of Cole Porter, the author quotes directly from Porter’s diary, relating the events surrounding the music for Born to Dance: “April 20, 1936. I took in ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ and they all liked it very much. Sam Katz [executive producer] asked me to get hold of [vocalist] Frances Langford at once and coach her for the song so she could come out and demonstrate it as soon as she was ready.” Langford came in on May 11, and they were pleased with her performance. (Langford was slated to play one of the parts in the film.) But on May 20, they asked Virginia Bruce (the female lead) to audition the song. Porter and the others were pleased with the results, and Bruce would eventually be the one to perform the song in the film.

Nevertheless, when Decca Records issued a set of recordings of music from the film, it was Langford who sang “I’ve Got You under My Skin.” Then Brunswick issued a recording of Bruce singing the tune, along with “Easy to Love” which was sung by young Jimmy Stewart in the film. The tune was immediately successful, landing second place in a list of songs played most often on the radio.

“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is unusual in that the song has no verse. It was standard practice with most popular songs to have a verse to “set-up” the chorus. Ironically most of the time tunes are performed without the verse anyway. The lyrics of “I’ve Got You under My Skin” relate to an infatuation “so deep in my heart, you’re really a part of me.” One of Cole’s neatest rhymes, “use your mentality, wake up to reality,” conveys the message “a warning voice that comes in the night.”