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"Get Me to the Church on Time" is a song composed by Frederick Loewe, with lyrics written by Alan Jay Lerner for the 1956 musical My Fair Lady, where it was introduced by Stanley Holloway.

It is sung by the cockney character Alfred P. Doolittle, the father of one of the show's two main characters, Eliza Doolittle. He has received a surprise bequest of four thousand pounds a year from an American millionaire, raising him to middle class respectability. Consequently, he feels he must marry Eliza's stepmother, the woman with whom he has been living for many years. Doolittle and his friends have one last spree before the wedding and the song is a plea to his friends not to let his drunken merriment forget his good intentions and make sure he gets to his wedding.

Covers and parodies

• On the children's show Sesame Street, Oscar the Grouch and his girlfriend Grundgetta get engaged by accident, but they agree to get married anyway to have a huge trashy party. Amid the chaos of all the wedding preparations, Oscar sings "I'm Getting Married in the Trash Can", a spoof of "Get Me to the Church on Time". Also, the Elmo the Musical sketch "Airplane Pilot" has a penguin bride character who also sings a parody of the song called "Get Me to the Old South Pole".
• On The Carol Burnett Show the song is performed by Burnett with The Pointer Sisters.
• On Gavin & Stacey, Uncle Bryn is singing this song as he carries in the flowers for Gavin and Stacey's wedding. Gwen, Nessa, and Stacey happily join in. The scene ends abruptly as Stacey's brother, Jason, enters the room and whatever awkwardness exists between him and Uncle Bryn regarding the "fishing trip" evaporates the joy of the moment and everyone stops singing.
• The Half Man Half Biscuit song "I'm Getting Buried in the Morning" is a murder ballad that ends with an execution, not a wedding. The lyrics of the chorus are: "I'm getting buried in the morning / So get me to the chair on time."

Notable recordings

• André Previn and Shelly Manne - My Fair Lady (1956)
• Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1956 for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in the box set The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954-56) issued by Mosaic Records (catalog MD7-245) in 2009.

References

1. Get Me To The Church On Time. SongFacts.com. Accessed June 3, 2012.
2. Lerner Alan Jay: My Fair Lady - The libretto. Penguin Books
3. Sesame Street Episode 3609 Street Story
4. Sesame Street: Airplane Pilot - Elmo the Musical
5. "'I'm Getting Buried in the Morning' by Half Man Half Biscuit". The Half Man Half Biscuit Lyrics Project. 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
6. "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
7. "allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved December 3, 2017.

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• 1956 songs
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• Songs from My Fair Lady
• 1950s jazz standards
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