From the “Music Box Revue”, 1924
words and music by Irving Berlin
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
Oh, why did we ever roam
So far away from our home
Oh, why did we ever plan
To run away from Japan
Chorus
What’ll we do?
We’ve got those Tokio Blues
Tokio Blues are not so easy to lose
Where the lotus flowers grow
That’s where we would like to go
To our home in Tokio
How we yearn to return to sunny Japan
The home of almond-eyed Queens
Looking like those you see
Embroidered on screens
Three unhappy little shes
Kneeling on their Japan knees
Singing the Tokio blues
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: