A popular song from 1935
Words and music by Maurice Sigler, Al Goodhart and Al Hoffman
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
Every nation in creation has its favourite drink
France is famous for its wine, it’s beer in Germany
Turkey has its coffee and they serve it blacker than ink
Russians go for vodka and England loves its tea
Refrain:
Oh, the factories may be roaring
With a boom-a-lacka, zoom-a-lacka, whee
But there isn’t any roar
When the clock strikes four
Everything stops for tea
Oh, a lawyer in the courtroom
In the middle of an alimony plea
Has to stop and help ’em pour
When the clock strikes four
Everything stops for tea
It’s a very good English custom
Though the weather be cold or hot
When you need a little pick-up
You’ll find a little teacup
Will always hit the spot
Now I know just why Franz Schubert
Didn’t finish his unfinished symphony
Oh, he might have written more
But the clock struck four
Everything stops for tea
Refrain:
If we Yankees caught that habit
Just imagine what a baseball game would be
With a run to tie the score
And the clock strikes four
Every man stops for tea
There’s the girlie in the parlor
Who consented she would kiss him finally
Any wonder he got sore
When the clock struck four
Everything stops for tea
Just imagine our famous jazz bands
When they swing it and go to town
Oh the time for tea would stump it
And Mister Reilley’s trumpet
Can’t push the last valve down
Can you picture our brave soldiers
In the trenches or a battleship at sea
In the middle of a war
When the clock strikes four
Everything stops for tea
Sung by Laurence Rubentstein: