From Ziegfeld’s “Show Girl”, 1929
Words by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn
Music by George Gershwin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
From the Congo jungle it came
A rhythm setting Harlem a-flame
Hear it once, you’re never the same
I’m referring to the Harlem Serenade
New kind o’ music and new kind o’ time
New kind o’ rhythm and new kind o’ rhyme
I have seen again and again
the sanest of me go daffydil when it’s played
Refrain:
Take a taxi and go there
You’ll meet people you know there
Where the trumpeters blow their Harlen Serenade
Say! When you enter this new world
This particular blue world
You’ll begin giving in
All your cares are mislaid
Oh, stop! Look!
Listen to that uptown jungle wail
Book your passage to that Harlem Congo trail
Where everybody is saying
“Mister leader, keep playing
Nothing but that Harlem Serenade”