(Outside of that every little thing’s all right)
From “The Ziegfeld Follies of 1919”
Words and music by Irving Berlin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- While trav’ling through Turkey in my dreams
I chanced to stray
Right into a harem and it seems
They let me stay
I spoke to the Sultan’s favorite wife
Before I fled
I asked her how she liked harem life
Here’s what she said
Refrain
“Living in a harem, what a life
Ne’er a thought of care or strife
Waiting on the Sultan night and day
Ever ready to obey
He keeps me dancing morning, noon and night
Dancing fills ‘im with delight
I am black and blue from the dance I do
But outside of that ev’ry little thing’s all right”
- I wanted to know how many wives
The Sultan had
She answered each day a wife arrives
Fresh from Baghdad
How did he continue on that plan
So many years?
She answered “He’s just a poor old man
With young ideas”