. . . Which means in Chinee “I Love You”.
A popular song from 1923.
Words by Eugene West.
Music by Ira Schuster.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Into China far away
Came a little German band one day
Started playing funny little tunes
On their trombones and bassoons
“Velly velly nice” the Chinese said
“Me like-ee tune, me like-ee swing”
Now all ove China land you can hear them sing
Chorus
“Hi Lee, Hi Lo, Hi Lee, Hi Lo”
From Pekin down to Shanghai town
You can hear them sing it all around
“Hi Lee, Hi Lo, Hi Lee, Hi Lo”
Now ev’ry little Chinese sheik will shout
“Me love-ee sweet mama like sour krout”
Oh, those lieber Chinese bands
That funny little tune they hum it
And they croon it ev’rywhere they go
“Hi Lee, Hi Lo, Hi Lee, Hi Lo”
Quite funny don’t you think
To ev’ry little Chink means “I love you so”
Patter
Sing-ee song-ee sung along-ee
Get-ee hot wow wow
Which means in Chinese language
That a cat can’t say Bow-wow
Mak-ee Jazz-ee razz-ma-tazz-ee
Get hot lips, hot feet
Which means to Chinese girlie
“Mister, tell me when we eat”
Holee smokee hokee pokee
Birds nest and bees knees
You can not find a reason why
A Chinese pup has fleas
Sum-Gai, dumb guy
Don’t know just why this song’s all the rage
They ought to put the guys who wrote it
In a padded cage
- Chinese used to be quite slow
Ever since they learned “Hi Lee, Hi Lo”
Every little Chink is full of pep
And you ought to see them step
Fox-ee fox-ee trot is all the rage
They dance all day, they dance all night
When they hear their fav’rite tune
They join with delight