From “MISS LIBERTY,” 1949 [unpublished].
Words and Music by Irving Berlin.
Cover Art after original by David Klein.
Copyright ©7 February 1949.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
Why do you, all of you, look so worried?
Why do you look so sad?
Prison is not so bad
I was there as a lad
Chorus:
Sing a song of Sing Sing
The summer and winter resort
Nothing’s wrong with Sing Sing
According to every report
They will teach you a trade
While you’re learning, you’re paid
Till you serve your sentence and then
They will set you afloat
With a ten-dollar note
And you start your life over again
Take a car to Sing Sing
It’s filled with the people you know
While they are in Sing Sing
They don’t have to pay what they owe
If your banker upsets you
And finally gets you
So you lie awake all night long
Steal some horses or sheep
And they’ll sing you to sleep
With a Sing Sing song
Chorus:
Sing a song of Sing Sing
The life isn’t hard to endure
Nothin’s wrong with Sing Sing
That knowing the warden won’t cure
If the warden’s your pal
You can send for a gal
That’s what happened early one morn
It was there in a cell
That a prisoner met Nell
That’s how Nellie’s baby was born
Tools are stored in Sing Sing
And jailers are seldom about
If you’re bored with Sing Sing
You just pay your bill and check out
If you long for your mother
One way or another
And if your home-sickness is strong
You can get to you ma
With a file and a saw
To a Sing Sing song
Chorus:
Sing a song of Sing Sing
It sounds like a wonderful place
We belong in Sing Sing
Let’s hope that we don’t win the case
I’ll begin as a clerk
But I’ll work and I’ll work
And I’ll be promoted, I know
I’ll give out with some sin
Till the warden gives in
And I’ll soon be running the show
I’ll elope in Sing Sing
It sounds like a place for romance
I just hope that Sing Sing
Is warmer than prisons in France
But suppose that it isn’t
A steam-heated prison
The walls and the bars will be strong
I’ll be there with the keys
As we sing a reprise
Of the Sing Sing song
Chorus:
Sing a song of Sing Sing
It’s easy if you know the tricks
Nothing’s wrong with Sing Sing
That a few dollars won’t fix
There’s the finest of drink
To be bought in the clink
You can get as high as the stars
You can all get a bun
If you’ll pardon the pun
It’s a place that’s lousy with bars
Gangsters bound for Sing Sing
Are happy when they get inside
They have found in Sing Sing
The safest of places to hide
Two-gun Tony was slated
To be liquidated
But he didn’t wait very long
Tony murdered his wife
Now he’s just doing life
To a Sing Sing song
Sung by Laurence Rubenstein: