The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151936   Message #3551321
Posted By: GUEST,MorwenEdhelwen1
21-Aug-13 - 07:17 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Alexander's Ragtime Band (Irving Berlin)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Alexander's Ragtime Band (Irving Berlin)
@Joe: George M. Cohan wrote "Give My Regards To Broadway", didn't he?
Funny thing about GMRTB- I didn't know about the original verses until very recently. The version I learned from listening to the CD my brother had to listen to for our primary school choir (even though I wasn't in the choir) had the chorus and these two verses:

Lift up the curtain, strike up the band,
Turn on the spotlight, give us a hand.
We're off for Broadway, we won't stop
Until we reach the very top.

I've waited too long -- not anymore,
I'm walkin' in through the backstage door.
Broadway is where I belong
Singing a Broadway song.

I have no idea who wrote those verses- probably not George M. Cohan!

When I introduced "Alexander's Ragtime Band" to my friend Alex and asked him what he thought on Skype, he said he wasn't that into ragtime. So I had to tell him it wasn't really ragtime. I also told another friend that ARB wasn't ragtime.

(AFAIK, it's not a rag but it does have a syncopated melody).