From the musical “Park Avenue”, 1946
Words by Ira Gershwin
Music by Arthur Schwartz
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Look me up in “The Social Register”
Just look up Ned Scott there
And of all the names they’ve got there
You will find that I am not there
Then look up “Who’s Who in America”
And though it would be pleasant
To be among those present
I’ve no claim to fame
Of me they’ll have none
In Bradstreet and Dun
Your choosing me was a bolt from the blue
I’m not exactly the type I would choose for you
Refrain:
I don’t know how I won you
For the life of me
Can’t understand how you could care to care
I can’t get over it yet
Of all the many I’d met
You were so unlike
Not anyone like you anywhere
How did I ever win you
For the wife of me?
How did the likes of you and me combine?
I look at you and then
I pinch myself again to realize that
For the life of me you’re mine
- At my finishing school in Switzerland
Never met a Swiss there
That I ever cared to kiss there
Or when I left, I would miss there
When I got me back to America
All through my Junior Leaguing
There was no one intriguing
With that real appeal
So don’t go to town
To build yourself down
If you’re a head hunter straight from Peru
I’m still exactly the type I would choose for you
Refrain:
I don’t know how I won you
For the life of me
I only thought I’d worship from afar
I can’t get over it yet
The very first time we met
I had no inkling my star was twinkling
But here we are
Just tell the world from now on
“Here’s the wife of me”
That’s all I ask and all you have to do
Historians will agree in my biography
The only reason
For the life of me is you