This song can be found at YouTube. Listening to it enabled me to correct several errors in the above transcription:


BABALUCI*

[SPOKEN] When I was a little boy, my mother used to take me for walks along the beach. And I remember the first time I saw these rocks all covered with these little hard-shelled creatures. And I asked her, "Hey mama, what are those things on the rocks over there?" and she said to me, "Luigi, they're snails, or periwinkles. In the old country they used to be called ciammarùche** but your grandma had a pet name for them. She used to call them babaluci." And this song is all about a little snail called Babaluche***."

1. I wake up in the mornin', look out at the sea
Take a walk along the beach, and set my spirit free.
I hear the gulls a-cryin', glidin' in the breeze.
I see my friend the little snail, he slyly winks at me.

CHORUS: Babaluci's on the rocks, makin' love the whole day long,
In the warmth of summer, all winter long.
The only time he takes a break is when the tide comes in,
And when it turns the other way, he starts right in again.

2. When we first met some months ago, his family numbered three.
He's been such a busy snail, it's very plain to see.
You can hardly see the rock. It's covered side to side.
The Babaluci family now numbers ninety-five. CHORUS.

3. Maybe I should take my girl along the beach with me,
Have her watch this creature makin' love beside the sea.
She'd lose her inhibitions, let her love run free,
Then I'd be known to her alone as Babaluci. CHORUS


* It appears that Lou Monte's albums consistently use the spelling "Babaluci." However, several credible online sources prefer the spelling "babbaluci" as the Sicilian word for snail.

** I spent way too much time trying to figure out what this word might be, even looking at several web sites about various Italian dialects—and I don't even know standard Italian! Results: There are several regional words for "snail." The longest list I could find is here. "Ciammarùche" is the word used in Molise, on the eastern coast of Italy, and seems to match what Monte says in the recording.

*** This spelling is conjecture on my part, but it seems that Monte omits the "i" sound at this point. I don't know why. Could it have something to do with the formation of singular vs. plural nouns?