Salome lyrics — music by Roger Edens, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, sung by Virginia O’Brien with Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra in Du Barry Was A Lady
Let’s go back two thousand years or more, perchance,
Before Delilah, before Godiva,
Before Gypsy Rose Lee was alive-a!
Way way back, before they ever heard of oomph girls!
At that time there lived a dame who did her dance,
Without a bubble that blew to smidgens,
Without a fan or without a flock of pigeons,
Way way back before the Greeks had a word for oomph girls!
With seven veils
She wowed the males
And made the hall of fame;
And this modern swing
And stuff and thing
All dates back to this day!
Salome was the grandma of them all,
She had the stuff that makes your motor stall!
This babe took Babylon by storm
And handed down that magic form,
You’ll know that takes the wallflowers off the wall!
Yes, they swing and sway,
Shimmy shammy, but they show me,
No matter how ya slice it boy,
It’s still — Salome!
On Samson and Delilah, here’s a tip;
She got her man,but with no barber’s quip!
She merely went into her dance
The day she found him with his pants,
Her unit and her blitzkrieg was a pip!
Yes, it barks often,
Minsky gives them a diplomey,
But no matter how ya slice it boy,
It’s still — Salome!
You can slice it thick,
you can slice it thin,
Or you needn’t slice it at all!
You can cut it long,
You can cut it short,
You can hang it up on the wall!
But then they claim it’s somethin’ new,
It really doesn’t throw me,
For no matter how ya slice it,
It still comes out Salome!