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Well this gigolo's jumping salty, ain't no trade out on the streets, |
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Half past the unlucky, and the hawk's a front-row seat |
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Dressed in full orchestration, stage-door Johnny's got to pay, |
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And sent him home talking 'bout the one that got away |
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Could have been on Easy Street, could have been a wheel, |
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With irons in the fire and all them business deals |
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But the last of the big-time losers shouted before he drove away, |
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"I'll be right back, as soon as I crack the one that got away" |
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Well, the ambulance drivers, they don't give a shit, |
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They just want to get off work, and |
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The short stop and the victim are already gone berserk |
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And the shroud-tailor measures him for a deep-six holiday, |
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The stiff is froze, the case is closed on the one that got away |
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Now Jim Crow's directing traffic with them cemetery blues, |
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With them peculiar-looking trousers, them old Italian shoes |
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And a wooden kimono that was all ready to drop in San Francisco Bay |
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But he's mumbling something all about the one that got away |
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And Costello was the champion at the St. Moritz Hotel, |
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And the best this side of Fairfax, reliable sources tell |
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But his reputation is at large, and he's at Ben Frank's every day, |
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Waiting for the one that got away |
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He got a snakeskin sportshirt, and he looks like Vincent Price, |
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With a little piece of chicken, and he's carving off a slice |
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Someone tipped her off, and she'll be doing a Houdini now any day |
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She shook his hustle, and a Greyhound bus'll take the one that got away |
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Well, Andre's at the piano behind the Ivar in the sewers, |
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With a buck a shot for pop tunes, and a fin for guided tours |
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He could-a been in "Casa Blanca", he stood in line out there all day |
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Now he's spilling whiskey and learning songs about a one that got away |
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Well I've lost my equilibrium and my car keys and my pride, |
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The tattoo parlor's warm, and so I hustle there inside |
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And the grinding off the buzz-saw, "What you want that thing to say?" |
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I says, "Just don't misspell her name, buddy, she's the one that got away" |
