A popular song from 1916.
Words and music by Irving Berlin.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Everybody sings of the sunny South
That’s the song that clings to the singer’s mouth
They ragtime it and boost the climate
Way up to the sky
I never cared a lot for the Swanee shore
There’s another spot that I’m rooting for
I’ve been there and I must declare
It can’t be praised too high
Chorus
If I had my way, I’d always stay
In Florida among the palms
With its peaceful air of “I don’t care”
And lazy atmosphere that calms
My one favorite haunt
Is a palm tree, and all I want
Is someone just to rest in my arms
I’d love to live among
The bamboo huts, the cocoanuts
There’s something in the climate that charms
Heaven’s corridor is sunny Florida
Home of the shelt’ring palms
- Florida was named very prettily
By the man who claimed its discovery
He spent hours among the flowers
And called it “God’s Land”
And nature seems to sigh “it’s my favorite”
That’s the reason why Heaven gave her it
It was born from a diamond worn
Upon an Angel’s hand
Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: