The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151796 Message #3547164
Posted By: Joe Offer
09-Aug-13 - 02:10 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (Berlin)
Subject: ADD: That's What the Well-Dressed Man In Harlem...
Here's another song from the 1942 stage revue, This Is the Arm.
THAT'S WHAT THE WELL-DRESSED MAN IN HARLEM WILL WEAR
(Irving Berlin)
VERSE
There's a change in fashion that shows
In those Lennox Avenue clothes:
Mister Dude has disappeared with his flashy tie;
You'll see in the Harlem Esquire
What the well-dressed man will desire
When he's struttin' down the street with his sweetie-pie.
CHORUS
Suntan shade of cream
Or an olive-drab color scheme—
That's what the well-dressed man in Harlem will wear.
Dressed up in O.D.s
With a tin hat for overseas—
That's what the well-dressed man in Harlem will wear.
Top hat, white tie and tails no more;
They've been put away till after the war.
If you want to know,
Take a look at Brown Bomber Joe—
That's what the well-dressed man in Harlem will wear.
From The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin, edited by Roibert Kimball and Linda Emmet (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2001), page 361