Oh, lady be good
To me.

Oh, Lady Be Good! is a 1924 Broadway musical comedy with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin. The quoted line is the hook of the show’s title song, written for the original production starring Fred and Adele Astaire. In the context of 1920s musical-theatre songwriting, the refrain functions as a playful, colloquial plea—typical of the Gershwins’ blend of jazzy modernity and witty, conversational lyric writing—designed to be instantly memorable and easily repeated by audiences beyond the theatre.

Taken on its own, the line reads as a compact, humorous supplication: the speaker addresses an unnamed “lady” and asks for kindness or favorable treatment. Its simplicity is part of its effect—almost childlike in diction—while the line breaks (often mirrored in performance) heighten the sense of a breathless, earnest appeal. In the musical-comedy idiom, the phrase also carries a flirtatious double edge: “be good to me” can mean both moral goodness and romantic generosity, letting the lyric land as both innocent and slyly suggestive.