A popular song from 1921
Words and music by Irving Berlin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Mary Green, seventeen
Mother’s only child
Mother’s cross just because
Mary’s running wild
Sits and spoons afternoons
With the boy next door
Mother cries “You mustn’t do it”
And Mary starts to roar
Chorus
I’m gonna do it if I like it – and I like it
I’ll let him hold me tho’ you scold me when I’m through
I hate to make Mother and Dad so terribly mad
But there are times when it’s good to be bad
I’m gonna hold hands if I like it – and I like it
A little squeezing is so pleasing when you’re blue
And since the boy next door first realized
I’d let him kiss me, well, you’d be surprised
I’m gonna do it if I like it and I do
- Mary’s beau worries so
More and more each day
Mary flirts and it hurts
More than he can say
She enjoys vamping boys
With her roguish eyes
When her beau says, “Please, don’t do it”
She looks at him and cries
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: