| "Button Up Your Overcoat" | |
|---|---|
 Sheet music, 1928 | |
| Song | |
| Released | 1928 |
| Songwriter(s) | Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown |
| External audio | |
|---|---|
 "Button Up Your Overcoat" sung by Helen Kane at the Internet Archive Digitized from a 78 single released in 1929. | |
| "Button Up Your Overcoat" sung by Zelma O'Neal at the Internet Archive. With Al Goodman and his "Follow Thru" Orchestra. Digitized from a 78 single released in 1929. |
"Button Up Your Overcoat" is a popular song. The music was written by Ray Henderson, the lyrics by B.G. DeSylva and Lew Brown. The song was published in 1928, and was first performed later that same year by vocalist Ruth Etting. However, the most famous rendition of this song was recorded early the following year by singer Helen Kane, who was at the peak of her popularity at the time. Kane's childlike voice and Bronx dialect eventually became the inspiration for the voice of cartoon character Betty Boop (most famously using Kane's famous catchphrase Boop Boop a Doop).
From January 9, 1929, to December 21, 1929, Jack Haley and Zelma O'Neal sang "Button Up Your Overcoat" on Broadway in the musical, Follow Thru. They reprised the song in the film version which opened on September 27, 1930, and was one of the first movies in Technicolor.