"Let Me Play with It"

When I first read the scene in which Grace introduces Ruby and Helen to the song "Let Me Play with It", I thought to myself, "This can't be serious.  Lisa is making this song up."  But, of course, I was wrong.  Lisa provides a real novelty song for Grace and Ruby to use to teach Helen beginning dance steps (40).

http://www.lisasee.com/insidechinadolls/music-videos/

Naturally Ruby grins at the double meanings of the lyrics but assumes that Grace and Helen are taking them straight.

What is most important about "Let Me Play with It" is the way Lisa transforms this novelty into something significant and beautiful.  When Grace, Ruby, and Helen get the opportunity to perform on Ed Sullivan's new TV show "Toast of the Town", Grace suggests that they perform to a modified version of "Let Me Play with It" -- replacing country music with all strings, dancing in soft shoe, and "making it squeaky clean for Mr. Sullivan" (340).  The result is that the Swing Sisters become nationally known and are linked in the public mind to this song.

But Lisa is not finished with the tune.  In the emotional climax of the novel, Charlie asks the three friends to perform to it one last time.  In this final scene the comic lyrics are left far behind.  "As I make the slow turn that initiates the break, I glimpse Ruby and Helen making their turns as well. After all this time -- despite the secrets revealed and the hearts broken -- we are still in sync on the dance floor.  Love envelops us, and we dance and dance and dance (376).  Beautiful.