From the musical “Annie Get Your Gun”, 1946.
Words and music by Irving Berlin.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk
Are secretly unhappy men because
The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk
Get paid for what they do but no applause
They’d gladly bid their dreary jobs goodbye
For anything theatrical and why
Chorus
There’s no business like show business
Like no business I know
Everything about it is appealing
Everything the traffic will allow
Nowhere could you get that happy feeling
When you are stealing that extra bow
There’s no people like show people
They smile when they are low
Even with a turkey that you know will fold
You may be stranded out in the cold
Still you wouldn’t change it for a sack of gold
Let’s go on with the show
- The costumes, the scenery, the makeup, the props
The audience that lifts you when you’re down
The headaches, the heartaches, the backaches, the flops
The sheriff who escorts you out of town
The opening when your heart beats like a drum
The closing when the customers won’t come
Chorus
There’s no business like show business
Like no business I know
You get word before the show has started
That your fav’rite uncle died at dawn
Top of that your pa and ma have parted
You’re broken hearted but you go on
There’s no people like show people
They don’t run out of dough
Yesterday they told you you would not go far
That night you opened and there you are
Next day on your dressing room they’ve hung a star
Let’s go on with the show
- The cowboys, the tumblers, the wrestlers, the clowns
The roustabouts who move the show at dawn
The music, the spotlight, the people, the towns
The baggage with the labels pasted on
The sawdust and the horses and the smell
The towel that you’ve taken from the last hotel
Chorus
There’s no business like show business
If you tell me it’s so
Trav’ling through the country will be thrilling
Standing out in front on opening nights
Smiling as you watch the theatre filling
And there’s your billing out there in lights
There’s no people like show people
They smile when they are low
Angels come from ev’rywhere with lots of jack
And when you lose it, there’s no attack
Where could you get money that you don’t give back
Let’s go on with the show
Sung here by Vancha March: