Poison Ivy (2:46)

Poison Ivy” is a popular song by American songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It was originally recorded by The Coasters in 1959. It went to #1 on the R&B chart and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This was their third top-ten hit of that year following “Charlie Brown” and “Along Came Jones”.

The song discusses a girl named Ivy, calling her “Poison Ivy” because of her reputation with men as a player. The song makes references to other flowers such as a rose and a daisy, and diseases like measles, mumps, chickenpox, the common cold, and whooping cough. In a recently published biography about Jerry Lieber & Mike Stoller, the song’s authors, it was revealed that the song’s lyrics are about sexually-transmitted disease, not the illnesses previously thought.


She comes on like a rose,
But everybody knows,
She get you and such.
You can look but you better not touch!

Posion Ivy,
Posion Ivy,
Late at night while your sleepin’,
Posion Ivy comes a creepin’ around.

She’s pretty as a daisy,
But look out man, she’s crazy!
She’ll really do you in.
If you let her get under your skin!

Posion Ivy,
Posion Ivy,
Late at night while your sleepin’,
Posion Ivy comes creapin’ around.

Measles’ make you mumpy and mumps’ will make you lumpy,
And Chicken pox will make you jump and twitch.
The common cold will fool you,
And whooping cough will cool you.