TENEMENT SYMPHONY
From the film "The Big Store" (1941)
(Hal Borne / Sid Kuller / Ray Golden)

Tony Martin (Film Soundtrack) - 1941
Larry Clinton & His Orch. - 1941
Anne Shelton - 1944
Geraldo & His Orch. (vocal: Dorothy Carless) - 1944
Arthur Godfrey with Marion Marlowe - 1953
Sammy Davis Jr. - 1964


Schubert wrote a symphony
Too bad he didn’t finish it
Gershwin took a chord in ‘G’
Proceeded to diminish it
I sought a variation
on a theme that I thought pretty
And I found my inspiration
on the east side of the city

The Cohens and the Kellys
The Campbells and Vermicellis
All form a part of my tenement symphony

The Cohen’s pianola
The Kellys and their victrola
All warm the heart of my tenement symphony

The Campbells come tumb’lin’ down the stairs
Hoodlie-ah, hoodlie-ah, hoodlie-ah
Oh Marie, oh Marie
You’ll be late for your date with Izzy.

And from this confusion
I dreamed of a grand illusion
It’s my tenement symphony in four flats

(Orchestral Interlude)

And from this confusion
I dreamed of a grand illusion
It’s my tenement symphony in four flats


(Contributed by Bill Huntley - January 2005)