From “THE CENTURY GIRL”, 1916
Words by Irving Berlin and Elsie Janis.
Music by Irving Berlin.
Cover Art by Albert W. Barbelle.
Copyright ©11 Jan 1917.
Sheet Music from the collection of Michael Deatz.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- It takes a German to make Lager Beer
It takes the French to make wine
It takes a pale-faced man from old Japan
To make a nice embroidered fan
It takes a Turk to make the cigarettes
For you American men
It takes a black-eyed Hawaiian lad
To make ukeleles, but then
Chorus:
It takes an Irishman to make love
It seems to fit them just like a glove
I know you money-makers are here in New York
But all the heart breakers are over in Cork
It is not the things that they do
But how they do them fascinates you
And when it comes to kissing sure they stand alone
For years they’ve practiced on the blarney stone
And you’ll discover that the world’s great lover
Came from Ireland
- You’ve heard them sing in all their Irish songs
“Ireland fell from the skies”
And I believe it’s true, their eyes of blue
Are little bits of Heaven too
Talk of your gentlemen from foreign lands
And the polite things they do
But it’s the honey-toned Irish voice
That steals the heart right out of you
Sung by Laurence Rubenstein: