"Skip to My Lou" is a song forever associated to the names of Ralph Blane and Hugh Martin, although the two men got credit for it without composing it. It is actually a standard dating from the nineteenth century that they cherished and therefore adapted, arranged and turned into a hit in the early forties.
This rarely seen short is nothing but a "Soundie" series filmed song but there is more to it than just that. Indeed the two men merrily singing and dancing with two girls , part of a group known as the Martins, dressed up as farmers, in overalls, checkered shirts, Stetson hats, et all , are none other than Blane and Martin themselves. Not only is it rare to see songwriters sing and dance to their compositions but here the two men do it WELL. Even more exciting is the fact that "Skip to My Lou" will become a fine sequence of the famed MGM musical "Meet Me in Saint Louis" three years later. If you look at the two films you will note that the arrangement they perform here is identical to the version interpolated into the score of the Freed/Garland/Minnelli classic.
Thanks to the bonuses of the Warner Home Video DVD of "Meet Me in Saint Louis", you can now have yourself a merry little song!