The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #29894   Message #1936801
Posted By: Jim Dixon
14-Jan-07 - 09:52 PM
Thread Name: Lyr/Chords Req: I Wish I Was in Peoria
Subject: Lyr Add: I WISH I WAS IN PEORIA (Rose,Dixon,Woods)
I think I recognize the lyrics posted above as the ones sung by The Red Clay Ramblers. (I can't remember which album it was on, but it seems to be out of print.) That second verse is definitely newer than the original song. For one thing, I'm sure 911, the emergency phone number, didn't exist when the song first came out in 1925 or so.

I WISH I WAS IN PEORIA (sometimes spelled I WISH'T ... or I WISH'D ...) was written by Billy Rose, Mort Dixon, and Harry Woods.

The Red Hot Jazz Archive has 2 playable sound files, one by Ted Lewis and his Band, the other by Harry Reser and His Orchestra (recording as The Jazz Pilots), both from 1925. Unfortunately, both those recordings have vocals of the chorus only, no verses.

The Internet Archive (I should check that resource more often!) has an mp3 file from which I transcribed this:

I WISH I WAS IN PEORIA
(As sung by Billy Jones & Ernest Hare, 1926)

SPOKEN: All hands on deck! (Aye, aye, sir!)
Man the lifeboats! (Aye, aye, sir!)

VERSE 1: S-O-S! S-O-S! Captain, we are lost.
Our ship is wallowing in the sea. By wind and wave we are tossed.
Lifeboats here, lifeboats there, hear the shrieks and groans!
The captain calls all hands on deck and says in trembling tones:

(SPOKEN: What did he say, Bill?)

CHORUS 1: Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria tonight!
Oh, how I miss the goils in Peoria, Peoria tonight!
Oh, you can pick a morning Gloria (Yes, yes!)
Right off the sidewalks of Peoria.
Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria tonight!

VERSE 2: What a song! What a song! Hear the wild applause!
The Metropolitan Opera House is crowded to the doors.
Bravo here, bravo there, bravo with a bang!
[Unintelligible – probably the name of an opera singer] sang a song, and this is what he sang:

CHORUS 2: Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria tonight!
Oh, how I miss the flies in Peoria, Peoria tonight!
Why should I sing "Toreadoria"
When I could sing about Peoria?
Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria tonight!

VERSE 3: Play the fife! Play the drums! Give a big hooray! (Hooray!)
The great professor from Heidelberg is speaking here today.
Silence here, silence there, while he starts to preach!
The great professor clears his throat and makes this brilliant speech:

CHORUS 3: Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria tonight!
Oh, how I miss the mud in Peoria, Peoria tonight!
The present mayor of Peoria (Yes, yes?)
Works in the five-and-ten-cent storia.
Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria tonight!

VERSE 4: Doctor White, Doctor Brown, Doctors Smith and Jones
Have all decided to operate on Barney Google's* bones.
Nurses here, nurses there, someone send a wreath!
Barney lies there helplessly and murmurs through his teeth:

CHORUS 4: Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria tonight!
They trim their nails with guns in Peoria, Peoria tonight.
The knives and forks sold in Peoria
Are always chained down to the flooria.
Oh, how I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria tonight!

[*Jones & Hare had previously recorded BARNEY GOOGLE.]