I Want To Be Happy

From the musical “No No Nanette”, 1924.
Words by Irving Caesar.
Music by Vincent Youmans.


The sheet music:


Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:


Lyrics

  1. I’m a very ordinary man
    Trying to work out life’s happy plan
    Doing unto others as I’d like
    To have them doing unto me
    When I find a very lonely soul
    To be kind becomes my only goal
    I feel so much better
    When I tell them my philosophy

Refrain
I want to be happy but I won’t be happy
Till I make you happy, too
Life’s really worth living
When we are mirth-giving
Why can’t I give some to you?
When skies are gray
And you say you are blue
I’ll send the sun smiling through
I want to be happy but I won’t be happy
Till I make you happy, too

  1. No one ever talked like that to me
    I have never known such sympathy
    Only in my dreams it really seems to me
    It’s too good to be true
    There are smiling faces everywhere
    Surely I deserve my little share
    I’m a lucky girl to know
    That I can get it all from you