A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody.

"A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" is best known as the title and opening hook of a popular song written by Irving Berlin and introduced in the 1931 musical film *The Jazz Singer* (Warner Bros.). Berlin, one of Tin Pan Alley’s most prolific songwriters, frequently crafted catchy, conversational titles that doubled as memorable refrains. In the early sound-film era, such songs were designed to be instantly repeatable and marketable beyond the film through sheet music and recordings. The phrase functions less as a standalone aphorism than as a lyric premise: a romantic comparison meant to frame the song’s central conceit.

The line turns attraction into an auditory metaphor: beauty is imagined as something that “stays on your mind,” like a tune you can’t stop humming. By likening a “pretty girl” to a melody, Berlin emphasizes the persistence and emotional immediacy of desire—its tendency to replay internally, independent of the beloved’s presence. The comparison also reflects Berlin’s craft: romance is expressed through the language of music itself, making the song self-referential (a melody about a melody). Read today, the sentiment can feel dated in its objectifying simplicity, but it remains a clear example of early 20th‑century popular songwriting’s reliance on vivid, easily grasped similes.