A popular song from 1922.
Words and music by Billy Baskette, Jack Denny, and George S. Gilfillan Jr.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Where the lights are burning low
Down in Chinatown
There one night I chanced to go
Down in Chinatown
It was there I heard a story old
Many times this story has been told
Chinaman tells maiden fair
In the shadows there
Chorus
Rose of the underworld
Your heart is sad when it should be glad
And I know Rose, tho’ you may seem gay
At night when shadows fall you start to cry
You’re just a broken butterfly
Oh Rose, everybody knows
That you are down
And still they love you
But some day someone will win you
And find the good that’s in you
Rose of the Underworld
- Where the lights are burning bright
Up and down Broadway
With a lonesome heart each night
There she winds her way
But when all the lights are burning low
Down in Chinatown this maid will go
And the same old Chinaman
Whispers soft and low
Sung here by Fred Feild: