A silly song about having a positive attitude, 1923.
Words and music by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn.
The owners of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus sued this song on copyright and won.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- There’s a fruit store on our street
It’s run by a Greek
And he keeps good things to eat
But you should hear him speak
When you ask him anything
He never answers “no”
He just “yes”es you to death
And as he takes your dough
He tells you
Chorus
“Yes! we have no bananas
We have no bananas today
We’ve string beans, and onions
Cabbageses, and scallions
And all sorts of fruit and say
We have an old fashioned to-mah-to
A Long Island po-tah-to
But yes, we have no bananas
We have no bananas today”
- Business got so good for him that
He wrote home to say
“Send me Pete and Nick and Jim
I need help right away.”
When he got them in the store
There was fun, you bet
Someone asked for “sparrow grass”
And then the whole quartet
All answered
Sung here by Fred Feild: