A rag-style fox-trot novelty song set in the Orient, 1919.
words by Fred Fisher
music by Felix Bernard & Johnny S. Black
Adapted from a piano rag called “Turkish Tom Tom.” Dardanella was most successful as an instrumental. In the song she is a beautiful woman from the Dardanelles, a strait in Turkey.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment track:
Lyrics
- Down beside the Dardanella Bay
Where Oriental breezes play
There lives a lonesome maid, Armenian
By the Dardanelles with glowing eyes
She looks across the seas and sighs
And weaves her love spell so Sirenian
Soon I shall return to Turkestan
I will ask for her heart and hand
Chorus
Oh sweet Dardanella, I love your harem eyes
I’m a lucky fellow to capture such a prize
Oh Allah knows, my love for you and he tells you to be true
Dardanella, Oh hear my sigh, my Oriental
Oh sweet Dardanella, prepare the wedding wine
There’s be one girl in my harem, when you’re mine
We’ll build a tent just like children of the Orient
Oh sweet Dardanella, my star of love divine
- When the Turkish Sultan saw her eyes
Oh he was taken by surprise
He said, “I’ll buy her for my Harem”
I just told the Sultan to be nice
She can’t be brought for any price
She said to me she couldn’t bear him
So beneath the Oriental moon
I’ll be wooing my love real soon
Sung here by Fred Feild: