"More I Cannot Wish You" is a song written and composed by Frank Loesser and first performed by Pat Rooney in 1950.
The sentimental lyrics relate the feelings of the oldest character in the play, missionary Arvide Abernathy,[3] who sings it tenderly to his granddaughter, Sarah Brown.
"[5] For "lickerish tooth," Loesser consulted a thesaurus to find synonyms for "covetous" and found "lecherous," which was "appalling in sound to the modern ear," after which he consulted Oxford English Dictionary and saw "two archaic spellings"—"licorice" and "lickerish"—and "[i]n the exemplary material ... found 'lickerish tooth.
'"[5] Reviewing the original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls, Wolcott Gibbs wrote in The New Yorker that "More I Cannot Wish You" is "one of the pleasantest things in the show.
"[7] The New York Daily News review said that "More I Cannot Wish You" "is worthy of Rooney's old, sure charm.