It is sung by the cockney character Alfred P. Doolittle, the father of one of the show's two main characters, Eliza Doolittle. He has received a surprise bequest of four thousand pounds a year from an American millionaire, raising him to middle class respectability.[1] Consequently, he feels he must marry Eliza's stepmother, the woman with whom he has been living for many years. Doolittle and his friends have one last spree before the wedding and the song is a plea to his friends not to let his drunken merriment forget his good intentions and make sure he gets to his wedding.[2]
Covers and parodies
On the children's show Sesame Street, Oscar the Grouch and his girlfriend Grundgetta get engaged by accident, but they agree to get married anyway to have a huge trashy party. Amid the chaos of all the wedding preparations, Oscar sings "I'm Getting Married in the Trash Can", a spoof of "Get Me to the Church on Time".[3] Also, the Elmo the Musical sketch "Airplane Pilot" has a penguin bride character who also sings a parody of the song called "Get Me to the Old South Pole".[4]
On Gavin & Stacey, Uncle Bryn is singing this song as he carries in the flowers for Gavin and Stacey's wedding. Gwen, Nessa, and Stacey happily join in. The scene ends abruptly as Stacey's brother, Jason, enters the room and whatever awkwardness exists between him and Uncle Bryn regarding the "fishing trip" evaporates the joy of the moment and everyone stops singing.
Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1956[6] for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in the box set The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954-56) issued by Mosaic Records (catalog MD7-245) in 2009.[7]
