Charley My Boy

My late aunt and I always thought this song with music by Ted Fio Rito and lyrics by Gus Kahn would be appropriate for a book (or blog) about Charley. Eddie Cantor recorded the song on July 18, 1923, which was later released as a single on Columbia Records in 1924. It's possible Charley heard this song before his death.

Charley is an ordinary fellow

To most everyone but Flo, his Flo 

She's convinced that Charley

Is a very extraordinary beau, some beau

And everything in the dim light 

She has a way of putting him right. 

Charley my boy, oh Charley my boy 

You thrill me, you kill me with shivers of joy 

You've got the kind of, sort of, wonderful ways 

That makes me, takes me, tell me what shall I say?

When we dance I read in your glance

Whole pages and ages of love and romance

They tell me that Romeo was some lover too

But boy he should have taken lessons from you

You seem to start where others get through 

Oh Charley, my boy.

Charley, my boy, oh Charley, my boy

You thrill me, you kill me with shiver of joy

You've got the kind of, sort of, wonderful ways

That makes me, takes me, tell me what shall I say?

When we dance I read in your glance

Whole pages and ages of love and romance

They tell me that Romeo was some lover too

But boy he should have taken lessons from you

You seem to start where others get through,

Oh Charley, my boy.

And when we dance, I read in your glance

Just oodles and noodles of love and romance

I have a millionarie proposing to me

I think I'll marry him, though he's eighty-three

Think what wealthy widow I'll be

Oh Charley, my boy.

To the best of my knowledge these lyrics are now Public Domain.

Please contact me if otherwise.