A 1910 popular song.
Words and music by Irving Berlin and Ted Snyder.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- You know how you feel when your rich uncle dies
And leaves you a lot and a house?
Well, that’s how I felt when I first met Miss Lena
Sweet little neat Lena Kraus
I just hate to think how she came in my life
Like a lanlord what comes for the rent
The rent was my heart when she took it apart
Just how she came, she went
Chorus
Oh, when I think of my Lena
My face turns so white just like starch
The hand organs play pretty love songs all day
But to me it’s just plain fun’ral march
It’s bad to be sad, to be glad when you’re sad
Can’t be did as you all must agree
If you feel like I feel and you hear my appeal
Oh! bring back my Lena to me
- I cry when I think what a woman she was
What cost dollars she bought for a cent
When she broke a glass, why it wouldn’t be broke
Ach! no, it would only be bent
To cry over milk that’s been spilt isn’t good
But the feeling that I’m feeling now
It wasn’t just one glass of milk that I spilt
When Lena went, then went the cow
Chorus
Oh, when I think of my Lena
I think of a girl who could cook
Some sweet sauerkraut
That would swim in your mouth
Like the fishes that swim in the brook
When I think of a meal
That was real I just feel
Like a ship with no sail on the sea
There’s no tears in my eyes
But my appetite cries
Oh! bring back my Lena to me
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: