A medley from 1913
Words and music by Irving Berlin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
Doctor, hurry, won’t you hurry up and stop my worry
Can’t you see that I am all a-flurry?
I ‘ve been troubled with an ailment
Greatly here lately, headache fixer
Oh, you wonderful prescription mixer
Won’t you tell me why my
Shoulders keep going in the air?
Any little rag will start me doin’ it
Doin’ it against my will
Every orchestra seems to say
Go, go, go, go start that rhythm
I’ve got to hurry up and do it with ’em
I just can’t pause, because
They’ve got me doin’ it now
When the midnight choo-choo leaves for Alabam’
So snappy, it makes me happy
And that mysterious rag
It fills me with a jumping jag
It’s the drag of the rag
And you really ought to see
You ought to see how I perform
When they play Dixie
Doctor, doctor
I must hurry near them
Doctor, doctor
Any time I hear them
Fiddle up, fiddle up on their violins
Some peculiar something sets my feet a-jumping
Most anytime that I listen to a ragtime violin
I’ve got to go, I’ve got to go
I’ve got to go right to it
First I snap my fingers
Then I hug up close to my baby
Doctor, you can tell me maybe
Why I hug up to my baby
When the music starts playing
And when I hear, and when I hear
Alexander’s ragtime band
I’ve got to dance, I’ve got to dance
Just because my feet demand
I just find myself a-doin’ it
Before the band is through
So natural that I don’t know what to do it
Doctor, I see you’re doing it too
You! You! You! You!
Doctor I’m afraid I’ve got you doing it
Doing it against your will
And I thought that you’d cure me sure
Go! Go! Go! Go to it, do it
Doctor when I came I wanted medicine
But I’ve changed my mind somehow
I came here because I was sure
With your help it couldn’t endure
Now I know there is no cure
Everybody’s doing it now