Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: clueless don
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 02:43 PM

Don't know if you're bovvered, but you're obviously not a pox-ridden wench!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 09:47 AM

Don not so clueless~~

Tate Britain?


Am I bovvered!?

LoL

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: clueless don
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 08:49 AM

Now, whenever I hear the Shakespearean sonnet "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" (Sonnet 130) that MtheGM posted on 06 Aug 13 - 12:24 AM, I can't resist the urge to add

"Bite me, alien boy!"


I'll wait and see if anybody knows the reference.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 08:31 AM

On the other hand, as you probably know, you can sing virtually all of Emily Dickinson's poems to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas".    And I find that far more fascinating. And useful.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: beardedbruce
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 08:17 AM

EASTER PARADE—SONNET


Is not a sonnet by the standard definitions, nor is it in the Italian rhyme scheme, or any variant thereof.

It does have 14 lines...





Sonnet 24/01/02                        DCL

A sonnet is a frozen tear, a kiss,
Preserved in fourteen lines. It is a pearl
Of layered thought, a gem too bright to miss
When set on page: One blossom, to unfurl
To perfect flower. As amber, sealed soul
In timeless tomb, it can show time long past,
Or hold this instant in it's grasp. The whole
Of heart upon one single page, to last
Beyond even our dreams, it seems a sip,
Distilled to essence. Refined within mind,
Lines sing sweet song, and rhymes in patterns slip,
To weave image that leaves mere vision blind.
A single chord, to resound in one's heart:
Echo of past that might our future start.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 08:09 AM

But let me also assure you that none of the aforementioned is by any means to be interpreted as an exhortation to you to "lighten up."

I'm sure somebody will be by to carry out that task.

Different strokes...

Though it does perhaps raise the question as to non-fundamentalists (fundamentalist in this case meaning somebody who is trying to convert somebody else to his or her way of thinking) are more likely to have a more wide-ranging sense of humor.

Or maybe it's just ignorant Colonials who do.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 08:04 AM

us half-educated people

- meaning Irving Berlin and Joe Offer? What a boast!

The ladies from the Women's Emergency Housing probably knew a correct definition of a sonnet, so they might have been a bit disappointed when someone who probably did not, called them "so dumb that they can't write a sonnet about her Easter Bonnet". Their reaction is not known to us; I guess Berlin himself proudly reported the letters to Kimball and posterity.

Perhaps the husbands had thrashed the ladies for pedantry, unjustly, of course. In my opinion, a pedant is not someone who points out a detail, but who bases her or his overall verdict on it. Here I plead not guilty. Many somewhat educated people including myself enjoy sonnets and musicals, and appreciate Berlin's works as highlights of their genre.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 08:01 AM

Well done, MGM. ( Are you in technicolor or just black and white?)

We, the mediocre and complacently uninformed, will always need your services.

The problem is:   it's sometimes a lot of fun to be complacently uninformed, and/or to twist words a bit for humorous effect.   Even though senses of humor vary from person to person . And, as I recall, Americans are famous for thinking that a pudding crawling is hilarious. While others may differ on this point.

For instance, just recently I came up (with some assistance) with the idea that the reason St. Paul was chased out of quite a few places, like Corinth and Ephesus,   was that when singing a song, when he ran out of words he tended to lapse into na-na-na. And his listeners got very tired of this.   I found this picture perfectly delightful.   And I'm not overly bothered by the theological accuracy--or lack thereof--of it.

But there's also this:    I know somebody quite well whose dial is always set on "outrage".    I always tell her:    you can look for outrage everywhere--and find it.   Or you can look for humor everywhere---and find it.   Now, which is healthier?

Sure, there are some topics which should be taken seriously.

But they are in the distinct minority.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 05:51 AM

As for 'small stuff' ~~ who was the wise man who said that the devil was in the detail?* And as well our atomic scientists and diplomats should 'sweat the small stuff'; so why neglect and self-satisfied ignorance should be considered good enough for our use of words, the essential components of any sort of creative civilised intercommucication...!

~M~

Now, who is going to be the first to tell me to 'lighten up', I wonder. I have been denounced and insulted for attempting to maintain accurate standards of discourse; so I expect some anti-pedant [in two separate senses -- work them out] will have something else denunciatory or dismissive to enjoin me.

*The idiom "the devil is in the detail" derives from the earlier phrase, "God is in the detail;" expressing the idea that whatever one does should be done thoroughly; i.e. details are important. This original idiom has been attributed to a number of different individuals, most notably to German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) by The New York Times in Mies' 1969 obituary; however, it is generally accepted not to have originated with him. The expression also appears to have been a favorite of German art historian Aby Warburg (1866–1929), though Warburg's biographer, E.M. Gombrich, is likewise uncertain if it originated with Warburg. An earlier form "Le bon Dieu est dans le détail" (the good God is in the detail) is generally attributed to Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880). Bartlett's Familiar Quotations lists the saying's author as anonymous. Wikipedia

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 05:40 AM

"us half-educated people" ---

Well, you said it, Joe. Sounds as if there might be some sort of perverse pride involved, perhaps?

Ah, yes ~~ 'pedantic': wonder why I have always considered that a rather pathetic cop-out of a word to cover ignorance and mediocrity? On matters on which one is ill-informed, I always think silence is the best policy; but no doubt Mr Davies will denounce that as 'deadly serious'!

Oh, well. My legendary pedantry shall ever shine forth before me, casting much needed light upon the world of the mediocre and the complacently uninformed...

M·the·OLP

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 04:57 AM

Well, ya know, most of us half-educated people remember that a sonnet has 14 lines, and we don't sweat the small stuff....which is why we coined the word "pedantic." ;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 04:50 AM

Joe, that page 286 is very interesting, and poses various questions.

First of all, why were Ms. Stewart & Ms. Wilson in Women's Emergency Housing? Had they been thrashed by their husbands for composing horrible poetry, or for adoring Mr. Berlin?

More seriously: what was Mr. Berlin's idea of a sonnet? Educated audiences will associate a particularly artificial genre of poem, whence the incongruity I observed above. A poem like the one in Berlin's letter could indeed be improvised by a lover on the spot. If he really believed that to be a sonnet, his original use of that word was not well-informed.

There would have been alternatives, without sacrificing the rhyme; something approximately like "Your lovely Easter bonnet outshines the quaintest sonnet; so does the girl I'm taking to the Easter parade." ;-).

The editor Kimball may have chosen the title EASTER PARADE—SONNET to avoid discussing the matter at all.

On the other hand, there is one Irvin Berlin, and countless unimportant poets of flawless sonnets. His fame cannot be scratched.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 12:39 AM

I gather you don't feel it's in the Italian style?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 12:37 AM

MGM-

You might not have noticed I'm not always deadly serious.

Some folks might be but I'm not.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 12:24 AM

Yay, maybe, Joe ~~ but to illustrate how it isn't any way a sonnet, here are a couple from Shakespeare & Milton ~~

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)
  by William Shakespeare

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
    And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
    As any she belied with false compare.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15557#sthash.EIPpBQfQ.dpuf


On the Late Massacre in Piemont(1655)
 
AVENGE, O Lord, thy slaughtered Saints, whose bones
  Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
  Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones,
Forget not: in thy book record their groans
  Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
  Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
  To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway
  The triple Tyrant; that from these may grow
A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,
  Early may fly the Babylonian woe.

~John Milton

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 12:19 AM

On the other hand, Michael, ya gotta admit it's fun.... ;-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Aug 13 - 12:13 AM

As one whose pedantry, as I might just have remarked before, was described by a friend on another forum as 'legendary', I feel bound to observe that is in fact not a sonnet at all, of either the Petrarchan, Spenserian, or Shakespearean convention. A sonnet is not just any old bit of versification 14 lines in length, but one with a strict rhyme-scheme [the AABBCC... rhyme scheme of IB's effort is in no way permissible], written in iambic pentameters -- not trimeters, like his -- divided into either an octet and sextet [ie two sections of respectively 8 & 6 lines, with a change of mood or attitude observable from one to other {Petrarchan, Miltonic &c}]; or of 12 lines with a final summarising couplet {Spenserian & Shakespearean}

So what what Ron finds either 'classic' or 'classy' about this of Irv B's I am at a loss to perceive.

~M~ OLP
(Official Legendary Pedant)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade (Irving Berlin)
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 10:50 PM

Joe--

That's one classic--and classy--sonnet from Mr. Berlin.

Good for him.

But do you think it's in the Italian style?


Ron

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 07:06 PM

Found a copy in Canada, so postage reasonable.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 06:13 PM

Hi, Ron. I just found the 1918 recording, and added a link to my post. Yes, it's a touchingly powerful song.
Q, two problems with the Robert Kimball Complete Lyrics of.... series:

• They are so good and so interesting, that I had to buy all of them. For those on a budget, Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball edited a book titled Reading Lyrics, with lyrics by a number of songwriters.
  
• The books are too big to fit into scanners, so have to type the lyrics I post and can't submit them "in the high-tech way."

---

Here's another gem from The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin (page 286)

EASTER PARADE—SONNET

In April 1947 Berlin received the following letter:

Women's Emergency Housing
University of Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
April 24, 1947

Dear Mr. Berlin,
You claim and we quote, "I could write a sonnet about your Easter Bonnet." Frankly we would like to see you do it, preferably in the Italian style.
We have spent the entire evening attempting to write one with very little success and therefore we decided to let you take over.

Sincerely,
Billie Florence Stewart
Doroghy G. Wilson

He replied on May 1, 1947

Dear Billie Stewart & Dorothy Wilson:

If you can't write a sonnet
About her Easter Bonnet
Why don't you write some verse
About her satin purse
Or write a page of prose
About her silken hose
Or just dash off a "pome"
About her empty dome
Or maybe just a rhyme
Of how she wastes her time
Or leave it up to some
Who aren't quite so dumb
That they can't write a sonnet
About her Easter Bonnet.

Sincerely
Irving Berlin

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 05:25 PM

Yes, Joe, I knew it had verses.    But I thought I'd let somebody do them who can put them in the high-tech way, rather than typing a text in as I did.

Have you had a chance to listen to the actual 1918 recording?    As I said, I find it surprisingly poignant.   Admittedly the European combatants were already bled white.   But the Americans had no idea how long they would be in the war.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 04:43 PM

For a good work of art, a good artist and a worthy focus are both absolutely prerequisites. Thus, if a poet says "your bonnet and the person below it inspire me for a good sonnet", it can be seen as a charming compliment. But in a situation of immediate erotic interaction (or in a flirt, if you want it for $5 less), the idea of sitting down to count syllables is quite inappropriate, unintentionally funny. Moreover, both Fred Astaire and the character he plays have their poetic power in their legs. A high price to pay for a rhyme, but Hollywood and Broadway could afford it.

By the way, like many other art forms once held sacred, the technique of writing sonnets (by Italian or English rules) descended to a pure sport during the 19th century, organized as contests by newspapers, similarly to crossword puzzles. Poets who valued their originality could no longer join that crowd. Without those strict rules, the effort of being a truly outstanding poet increased.

Subject: ADD: Smile and Show Your Dimple (Irving Berlin)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 04:27 PM

Of course, this song has verses, too, Ron.

SMILE AND SHOW YOUR DIMPLE
(Irving Berlin, 1917)

VERSE 1
Little girlie, you look sad;
I'm afraid you're feeling bad
Because he's leaving.
But stop your grieving, little girl;
He don't want you to feel blue,
For it's not the thing to do.
It will soon be over;
Then he'll come marching back to you.

CHORUS
Smile and show your dimple;
You'll find it's very simple;
You can think of something comical
In a very little while.
Chase away the wrinkle;
Sprinkle just a twinkle:
Light your face up,
Just brace up and smile.

VERSE 2
Little girlie, don't you know
That your pearly teeth will show
If you start smiling?
So, keep your smiling, little girl;
You can keep your cares in half
If you only try to laugh.
Look into my cam'ra—
I'm going to take your photograph.

REPEAT CHORUS

Notes: Copyrighted August 20, 1917. Leading recording by Sam Ash (Columbia). In 1933 Berlin used part of the melody of the chorus as the principal source for the music of "Easter Parade."


Source: The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin, edited by Robert Kimball and Linda Emmett (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2001) page 155

---

YouTube Video of the Sam Ash recording

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: beardedbruce
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 01:35 PM

re:
Good sonnets, being tedious work, effectively praise the Petrarch rather than his Laura.



"In the old days a poet used to sweat turning out a sonnet, say. Very difficult form. Exactly 14 lines, all of them hung together with rhyme, rhythm, meter, perfectly. It was too much work for the poet, so blank verse and then free verse came in. And then anarchy. The new poet never bothered to learn how to write a sonnet, or to measure his lines in correct meter and to follow a rhythm system. He dashed off his inspired poem in a matter of a half hour and was surprised when after a few decades of this people stopped reading poetry."

Among the Bad Baboons, by Mack Reynolds
Copyright 1968 Galaxy Publishing Corp.



But I have to disagree with the comment - This inspiration of the muse is far more significant than the effort of the poet. Without a worthy focus, a sonnet cannot be good poetry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 11:34 AM

Ron- thanks for the introductory verse (checked by Joe).

I should get "The Complete Lyrics ....." He wrote so many sogs with memorable tunes.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 10:33 AM

One more thing.

Berlin did in fact change the melody somewhat for "Easter Parade".    Starts out very similar, but then diverges.    However, no question where the melody for "Easter Parade" came from.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 10:29 AM

Actually I just listened to the original hit (March 1918) and it is quite poignant. It's about a girl saying goodbye to her boy who's going to fight Over There.

And of course in March 1918 many soldiers, including Americans, were still being killed. It was not at all clear the war would be over within the year. And on top of that came the flu epidemic.

I wonder if anyone can link the original song, easily obtainable by search engine--I have an Apple so I used Safari--to this thread.

I don't have the tech savvy to do so.



Or are there copyright problems?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 10:10 AM

Well, that didn't take long. Here's what I found:


Smile and show your dimple
You'll find it's very simple
You can think of something comical
In a very little while
Chase away the wrinkle
Sprinkle just a twinkle
Light your face up
Just brace up and smile.


I think it's pretty clear the second set of lyrics ("Easter Parade") was in fact an improvement.

But this first song was in fact a hit--#10, I think, in 1918.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Ron Davies
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 10:01 AM

I wonder if anybody can post the original lyrics to the chorus ("Smile and Show Your Dimple").

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 05:10 AM

Hi, Ron - the verse you posted is that same as what I was about to post from The Complete Lyrics of Irving Berlin. Couldn't find a printed verification of the British version, though.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 05:06 AM

Whenever I read a sonnet, a flash of memory appears before my inner eye, with Fred Astaire singing

Oh, I could write a sonnet
about your Easter bonnet

- what would a musical persona not do for the sake of rhyme!

Good sonnets, being tedious work, effectively praise the Petrarch rather than his Laura.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Aug 13 - 01:08 AM

I remember the English version as "... down in Rotten Row ,,, In a smart magazine". But that is a 75-or-so year old recollection so I don't guarantee its accuracy. But Ron's version is certainly in the main what I used to hear on the wireless in the 30s.

A bit desperate, of course: there wasn't a fashion occasion called the Easter Parade in Hyde Park, as there was on 5th Avenue; and the whole concept of the hat for the occasion being called an "Easter bonnet" was no part of our tradition. The royal opening of the flat-racing season at Ascot was the traditional venue for society ladies to show off their new hats. But I suppose the adaptor did his best.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Ron Davies
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 11:20 PM

Can't see any reason to leave out a verse, even when it serves just as introduction to the well-known chorus:

Never saw you look quite so pretty before
Never saw you dressed quite so lovely—what's more,
I could hardly wait to keep our date this lovely Easter morning,
And my heart beat fast as I came through the door

Then there's also what's described as the alternative bridge for UK use:

To the Park we'll go
Round Rotten Row
The photographers will snap us
And then you'll be seen
In the smart magazine.

I wonder if our UK posters would like to comment on this one.

I have no idea as to the validity of any of the above lyrics. Just came from the Net. But they could in fact be accurate.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Easter Parade
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 08:37 PM

When I saw this posted and saw that it came from the 1933 musical review As Thousands Cheer; I thought, Hey, that can't be the whole story. This song was used in musical productions over and over and over again:

• As Thousands Cheer, a Moss Hart musical revue, 1933. The show also included the well-known Irving Berlin songs, (tropical) "Heat Wave" and "Supper Time."
• Stop Press, a related Hassard Short/Moss Hart revue in London, 1935
• Alexander's Ragtime Band, a 1938 musical film starring Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Haley
• Holiday Inn, a 1942 musical film starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, Walter Abel
• Easter Parade, a 1948 musical film starring Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Peter Lawford, and Ann Miller. Easter Parade and Holiday Inn seem to me to be more-or-less the same story.

Here's Amazon's review of the 1948 film, Easter Parade:

Don Hewes (Fred Astaire) is devastated when his longtime dancing partner, Nadine Hale (Ann Miller), breaks up the team to set out on her own. Determined to prove that he can succeed without her, Astaire vows that he can pick any random chorus girl and make her a star. Fortunately for him, the chorus girl he picks happens to be one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century, Judy Garland (playing Hannah Brown). Easter Parade turned out to be the first and only collaboration between the two screen legends. Garland made the 1948 film despite ongoing health problems then had to pull out of a planned follow-up, The Barkleys of Broadway (Ginger Rogers replaced her); Astaire had retired following Blue Skies in 1946 but was brought in for this film as an emergency replacement after Gene Kelly broke his ankle playing touch football. Fortunately, Easter Parade always feels like an Astaire film rather than a Kelly film, from its Pygmalion-esque plot (which helps explain the principals' 23-year age disparity) to its score of Irving Berlin standards (some new, some recycled from earlier films). The film capitalizes on the strengths of both stars, Astaire in dance solos, including "Drum Crazy" and "Steppin' Out with My Baby" (MGM's take on Astaire's earlier, persona-defining "Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails"), and Garland in vocal solos, including the torchy "Better Luck Next Time." The stars especially shine, however, when they perform together in their vaudeville numbers, most notably the persona-defying hobo routine "We're a Couple of Swells." Watch this classic every Easter. --David Horiuchi

---

And of the 1942 film, Holiday Inn

In 1942, Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby teamed up at Der Bingle's Paramount Pictures for Holiday Inn, a black-and-white musical that proves more entertaining than Crosby's color semi-remake White Christmas in 1954. Astaire and Crosby play partner/rival song-and-dance men who compete for the hand of their performing partner, played by Virginia Dale. After Crosby loses, he moves to the Connecticut countryside where he creates a resort that is only open on holidays and puts on the shows with the help of Marjorie Reynolds. Dumped by Dale, Astaire makes a drunken arrival at the inn on New Year's Eve and dances with Reynolds. He decides she'll be his new partner, but doesn't remember what she looks like, setting off a frenzied search at every subsequent show while the once-bitten Crosby does his best to steer him off track. The theme gives Irving Berlin an excuse to craft or recycle a number of holiday-themed songs, such as (in the former category) "Washington's Birthday" or (in the latter) "Easter Parade." The most famous of the new material, of course, is "White Christmas," which became one of the bestselling songs of all time and the title song of Crosby's 1954 film. Astaire and Crosby also team up for "I'll Capture Her Heart," which playfully contrasts the stars' specialties, and Astaire's "It's So Easy to Dance with You" became one of the signature songs of his post-Ginger Rogers career. Astaire and Crosby teamed up again for Blue Skies in 1946. --David Horiuchi

I really like these two films, and I've watched them over and over again.
-Joe-

Subject: Lyr Add: EASTER PARADE (Irving Berlin)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Aug 13 - 07:52 PM

EASTER PARADE
Irving Berlin, 1933

In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.
I'll be all in clover, and when they look you over,
I'll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade.
On the avenue, Fifth Avenue, the photographers will snap us,
And you'll find that you're in the rotogravure.
Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet,
And of the girl I'm taking to the Easter parade.

From "As Thousands Cheer." Original melody written in 1917, "Smile and Show Your Dimple."