A funny fox-trot song from 1921.
Words by Bert Hanlon and Ben Ryan.
Music by Violinsky and Ira Schuster.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- There’s a certain girlie, she’s a Ghetto queen
Dresses fancy on Delancey street, she rules supreme
How she grabs the fellows any time they meet
She looks like Theda Bara all except her feet
Chorus
Vamping Rose, there she goes in her fancy clothes
Goodness me, can it be, My! what class she shows
Then she flits to the Ritz where she sits and sits
And she acts like a room and bath
(She’s an uptown person)
She wears a gem from the five and ten
With her flash and her dash she gets all the men
She don’t care for a heart, she just tears it apart
That’s why they call her Vamping Rose
- What a voice for singing, from her mouth it flows
Mary Garden, beg your pardon, she can’t sing like Rose
When it comes to Op’ra, she learns every part
Have you seen Tetrazzini? Rose knows that by heart
Chorus
Vamping Rose, there she goes in her fancy clothes
And her shoes, number twos, how they pinch her toes
Such a smile, she’s got style you can see a mile
Why she looks like a parlor lamp
(How she hates the subway)
Once from a king, Rosie got a ring
‘Pon my word, say, I heard it was “Browning King”
She’s got rouge on her cheeks, it’s been on there for weeks
That’s why they call her Vamping Rose
(Extra Choruses, from 1921 78 records)
Chorus
Vamping Rose, there she goes, in her fancy clothes.
Millionaires, bill of fares, that’s all Rosie knows.
And she eats several meats, then she orders sweets.
And she’s crazy for finger bowls…
(She’s got indigestion)
Not only that, in the automat…
Rosie went with one cent—she was broke and flat.
She made eyes at the slot and a pork chop dropped out.
That’s why they call her Vamping Rose
Chorus
Vamping Rose, there she goes, in her fancy clothes.
Winks her eyes at the guys, and she shows her hose.
She’s a vamp, she’s a scamp, from her head to toes.
And her diamonds are ALMOST real…
(She love’s tea and lemon)
She vamps the men, and they fall and then…
Leaves them flat, just like that. She just plays with them.
When they call on the phone, she makes out she ain’t home.
That’s why they call her Vamping Rose.
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: