From the 1920 show “Tick Tack Toe”
Words by Fred Fisher
Music by Johnny S. Black
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- The Dardanella blues, the Dardanella blues
Was written just to tell the news
About the little fellow who wrote Dardanella
And the girl that he refused
For when he wrote that strain
That Dardanella strain
She said, “You’ll never change my name
‘Till you write another one that ‘s just as grand”
So, he composed this sweet refrain
Chorus
Oh, that Dardanella blues
Ask the band to play it
And I’ll say they won’t refuse
It’s one sensation, with a jazz improvement
The orchestration shows up every movement
Oh, the Dardanella blues
The words are simply nothing
Nothing but a good excuse
I heard them say
The bass is just a little hard to play
But that is why
They like the Dardanella blues
- Now when this melody found popularity
It reached everybody’s ears
The girl that threw him down
When he wrote Dardanella
Thought that he would go in tears
Instead he used his wit and wrote another hit
And called it “Dardanella blues”
His girl came back
And now his song is going fine
And after all he didn’t lose
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: