| [00:13.01] |
Some thirty-odd years ago when I was three |
| [00:17.92] |
My sister a couple years older than me |
| [00:23.19] |
We'd get to go down to the old Chez Paree |
| [00:27.78] |
On the North side of downtown Chicago |
| [00:33.17] |
My dad worked the door with a wide-open hand |
| [00:37.64] |
Tuxedo-ed and tailored, a most handsome man |
| [00:43.90] |
My mother auditioned to sing with the band |
| [00:48.42] |
The most beautiful girl in the room |
| [00:54.56] |
All the performers who came there to play |
| [00:59.09] |
Sinatra and Bennett and young Mel Torme |
| [01:05.58] |
"They'd hang from the rafters," my father would say |
| [01:10.27] |
On those magical nights at the Chez |
| [01:23.25] |
One evening that winter my sister and me |
| [01:27.32] |
All dressed up and bow-tied and cute as could be |
| [01:32.59] |
We found ourselves leaning on opposite knees |
| [01:36.93] |
Of a man with a rather large nose |
| [01:42.07] |
A smelly cigar in the one hand he held |
| [01:46.91] |
A signature hat made of floppy gray felt |
| [01:52.92] |
He scooped us both up in his arms as he knelt |
| [01:57.95] |
And he tickled me right through my suit |
| [02:03.98] |
All the performers who came there to play |
| [02:08.48] |
Jimmy Durante and young Danny Kaye |
| [02:15.07] |
"They'd hang from the rafters," my father would say |
| [02:19.67] |
On those magical nights at the Chez |
| [02:56.47] |
So there on Mom's dresser this photograph sits |
| [03:00.77] |
Of Durante and Debbie and David as kids |
| [03:05.86] |
Before life got tricky, good God how it did |
| [03:10.81] |
And we scattered like leaves in the wind |
| [03:16.03] |
Dad stayed in Chicago, Mom moved to L.A. |
| [03:20.90] |
Deborah's in Portland and I'm day to day |
| [03:27.45] |
And the memories and miles seem so far away |
| [03:32.49] |
From those innocent nights at the Chez |
| [03:38.87] |
So here's to the family, God bless every one |
| [03:43.38] |
Though the memories and moments were not always fun |
| [03:50.00] |
Somehow we survived them and learned to move on |
| [03:55.26] |
Forgiving what nobody knew |
| [04:00.63] |
All the performers who came there to play |
| [04:05.18] |
Sophie Tucker, Nat King Cole, Maurice Chevalier |
| [04:12.42] |
And struggling young families finding their way |
| [04:17.67] |
Through those magical nights |
| [04:20.68] |
Those innocent nights, those magical nights |
| [04:29.01] |
At the Chez |
| [05:04.94] |
|
