From “Music Box Revue” 1924
words and music by Irving Berlin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
Poor little immigrant feeling Oh, so sad
I came from Petrograd with ev’rything I had
Now that I’m over here they won’t let me stay
That’s why I’m so unhappy today
Please don’t send me away
Chorus
Don’t send me back
I don’t want to go back to Petrograd
Don’t send me back
I don’t want to go back to my hometown
There’s millions of people on the shore
Why can’t you make room for just one more
There’s a boy that I love waiting out on the pier
How can I go when my heart is over here
Give me the chance
That you gave all my friends from Petrograd
I want to be in the land of the free and settle down
That Liberty statue down the bay
Is looking right at you and seems to say
Oh! don’t send her back
It’s terrible in my hometown
Chorus
Don’t send me back
I don’t want to go back to Petrograd
Don’t send me back
I don’t want to go back to my hometown
The very best people that you know
Were foreigners not so long ago
When they came over here they were all immigrants
So were their cousins and their uncles and their aunts
Give me the chance
That you gave all my friends from Petrograd
I want to be in the land of the free and settle down
I’ll promise to work the best I can
I’ll even wash sheets for the Klu Klux Klan
Oh! don’t send me back
It’s terrible in my hometown
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: