Song: SAGA OF JENNY Lyrics
Music: Kurt Weill
Lyrics: Ira Gershwin
Book: Moss Hart
Premiere: Thursday, January 23, 1941

There once was a girl named Jenny
Whose virtues were varied and many
Excepting that she was inclined
Always to make up her mind,
And Jenny points a moral
With which you cannot quarrel,
As you will find:

Jenny made her mind up when she was three
She herself was going to trim the Christmas tree.
Christmas Eve she lit the candles, tossed the tapers away.
Little Jenny was an orphan on Christmas day.

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny,
Her equal would be hard to find.
She lost one dad and mother, a sister and a brother,
But she would make up her mind.

Jenny made her mind up when she was twelve
That into foreign languages she would delve.
But at seventeen to Vassar, it was quite a blow,
That in twenty-seven languages she couldn't say no.

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny,
Her equal would be hard to find.
To Jenny I'm beholden; her heart was big and golden
But she would make up her mind.

Jenny made her mind up at twenty-two
To get herself a husband was the thing to do.
She got herself all dolled up in her satins and furs
And she got herself a husband--but he wasn't hers.

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny,
Her equal would be hard to find.
Deserved a bed of roses, but history discloses
That she would make up her mind.

Jenny made her mind up at fifty-one
She would write her memoirs before she was done.
The very day her book was published, history relates,
There were wives who shot their husbands in some thirty-three states.

Jenny made her mind up at seventy-five
She would live to be the oldest woman alive.
But gin and rum and destiny play funny tricks,
And poor Jenny kicked the bucket at seventy-six.

Jenny points a moral with which you cannot quarrel,
Makes a lot of common sense--
Jenny and her saga prove that you're gaga
If you don't keep sitting on the fence.

Jenny and her story point the way to glory
To all man and womankind.
Anyone with vision comes to this decision--
Don't make up your mind.