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About a year ago, |
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I heard this truly terrific, absolutely true story |
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And it just so happens that |
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I told a couple of friends of mine |
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This truly terrific, absolutely true story |
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And it just so happened that these friends of mine are song writers |
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And guess what happened? |
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Right, truly terrific, absolutely true song |
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Gather around, |
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I've got a story to tell |
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About a Manhattan lady that |
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I know very well |
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She lives at five |
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Riverside, her name is |
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Shirley Devore |
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And she traveled 'round the world to meet the guy next door |
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Well, there was trouble inside apartment 29 |
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E'Cause Shirley's mother and dad were as upset as can be |
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They said we hate to complain dear and we don't like to grouse |
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But your nearly 32, you should get out of the house |
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You gotta ring them bells, you gotta ring them bells |
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You gotta make 'em sing and really ring them bells |
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It's such a happy thing to hear 'em ting a ling |
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You gotta ring them bells |
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Well, Shirley was 31, which she was loathe to admit |
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And she had never been loved, which didn't thrill her a bit |
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And so she sat and she thought, she thought for hours on end |
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And said I'll go to |
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Chase, Manhattan where |
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I got me a friend |
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And so she borrowed a thou' and called |
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TWAAnd told her mother and dad that she was up and away |
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I'm gonna travel the continent, a month, maybe, two |
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And haul me home a hus' if it's the last thing |
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I doYou gotta ring them bells, you gotta ring them bells |
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You gotta make 'em sing and really ring them bells |
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It's such a happy thing to hear 'em ting a ling |
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You gotta ring them bells |
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She met a |
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Londoner first but they did not hit it off' |
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Cause every time she approached he got a bronchial cough |
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And so she went to |
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Madrid and met a handsome |
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SeniorBut he liked to throw the bull and he was no matador |
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She also bombed out in |
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Brussells, in |
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Mallorca and |
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RomeTil' someone said, "Try Dubrovnik, dear before you go home"' |
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Cause it's the kind of a town where you'll be likely to fall |
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And all the toni cognoscenti find the |
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Balkans a ball |
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You gotta ring them bells, you gotta ring them bells |
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You gotta make 'em sing and really ring them bells |
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It's such a happy thing to hear 'em ting a ling |
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You gotta ring them bells |
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And so she went to |
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Dubruvnik and the very first day |
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She met a guy on the beach who took her reason away |
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Yes, it was love at first sight and quite a beautiful scene |
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She said, "My name is Shirl Devore", he said, "I'm Norm Saperstein" |
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She said, "Are you from New York", he said, "That can't be deniedI've got a swell junior three at number five, Riverside""Five? Five Riverside Drive in New York, that's where you live?""That's, that's where I live, Five? Are you sure?" |
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As if that wasn't enough for |
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Shirley thought she'd gone deaf |
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When he told her his apartment there was 29 |
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FYes, she was ' |
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E', he was ' |
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F' and they had not even met |
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Until she traveled the world to |
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Yugoslavia yet |
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He'd always been right next door and she would never have known |
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If she hadn't tried |
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Dubrovnik, she might still be alone |
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Well, there's a moral to learn from little |
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Shirley Devore |
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Who had to borrow a thou' to find a lover next door |
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You girls who live in apartments, don't just stare at the wall |
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Open up the door and hurry out in the hall |
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And, oh ring them bells, come on, come on, ring them bells |
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Make 'em sing, you'd better ring the bells |
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It's such a happy thing to hear 'em ting a ling |
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You gotta swing them, ring them, swing them, ring them bells |
