I Cain't Say No is a song from the musical play Oklahoma!

Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...

written by composer Richard Rodgers

Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II...

 and lyricist/librettist Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...

.

In the song, the secondary character Ado Annie Carnes describes her sexual awakening (albeit in highly euphemistic terms) and the conflicts that it brings. Ado Annie has two principal suitors, a Persian traveling salesman Ali Hakim, and the cowboy Will Parker, recently returned from an excursion to Kansas City. She describes to Laurey the attention she is now receiving from men "since she filled out" and her inability to say "no" to their advances.

Sample Lyrics

It ain't so much a question of not knowing what to do.

I knowed what's right and wrong since I was ten.

I heared a lot of stories and I reckon they are true

About how girls're put upon by men.

I know I mustn't fall into the pit,

But when I'm with a feller,

I fergit!



I'm just a girl who cain't say no,

I'm in a terrible fix

I always say "come on, let's go!"

Jist when I orta say nix...

Cultural references

The song is sung by Polly in an episode of Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers

Fawlty Towers is a British sitcom produced by BBC Television and first broadcast on BBC2 in 1975. Twelve television program episodes were produced . The show was written by John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth, both of whom played major characters...

.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer

Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer , sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer, is an American performer who first rose to prominence as the lead singer, pianist, and lyricist/composer of the duo The Dresden Dolls...

 performed it with the Boston Pops in 2008.

House sings the lyrics "I'm just a girl who can't say no," in House M.D. episode 518.

See also

• All Er Nuthin'
  All Er Nuthin'
  "All Er Nuthin" is a tune from the musical play Oklahoma!, written by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.This song is near the end of the musical, where the secondary characters Will Parker and Ado Annie Carnes decide to get married. Will is wary because he knows Ado is the...
  
  , near the end of the musical where Will extracts a promise of fidelity from Annie, and vice versa.