A 1914 famous song.
words by M. E. Rourke (writing as Herbert Reynolds)
music by Jerome Kern (his first big hit)
From the book America’s Songs I: “Although They Didn’t Believe Me was only an interpolation into the forgettable musical, The Girl from Utah, it became for the next half century the model for what a musical comedy love song should be. What is wondrous about it is the natural ease it still radiates after nearly a century … The song had a strong effect on a sixteen-year-old Tin Pan Alley song plugger named George Gershwin.”
The sheet music:
Accompaniment:
Lyrics
- (He) Got the cutest little way
Like to watch you all the day
And it certainly seems fine
Just to think that you’ll be mine
When I see your pretty smile
Makes the living worth the while
So I’ve got to run around
Telling people what I’ve found
Chorus
And when I told them
How beautiful you are
They didn’t believe me
They didn’t believe me
Your lips, your eyes
Your cheeks, your hair
Are in a class beyond compare
You’re the lovliest girl that one could see
And when I tell them
And I certn’ly am goin’ to tell them
That I’m the man whose wife one day you’ll be
They’ll never believe me
They’ll never believe me
That from this great big world
You’ve chosen me
- (She) Don’t know how it happened quite
May have been the summer night
May have been, well, who can say
Things just happen any way
All I know is I said, “Yes”
Hesitating more or less
And you kissed me where I stood
Just like any fellow would
Chorus
And when I told them
How wonderful you are
They didn’t believe me
They didn’t believe me
Your lips, your eyes, your curly hair
Are in a class beyond compare
You’re the lovliest thing that one could see
And when I tell them
And I certn’ly am goin’ to tell them
That I’m the girl whose boy one day you’ll be
They’ll never believe me
They’ll never believe me
That from this great big world
You’ve chosen me
Sung here by Fred Feild: