David Roth – Nights at the Chez 
 Some thirty-odd years ago when I was three
 My sister a couple years older than me
 We'd get to go down to the old Chez Paree 
 On the North side of downtown Chicago
 
 My dad worked the door with a wide-open hand 
 Tuxedo-ed and tailored, a most handsome man 
 My mother auditioned to sing with the band
 The most beautiful girl in the room
 
 All the performers who came there to play
 Sinatra and Bennett and young Mel Torme
 "They'd hang from the rafters," my father would say
 On those magical nights at the Chez
 
 One evening that winter my sister and me
 All dressed up and bow-tied and cute as could be
 We found ourselves leaning on opposite knees 
 Of a man with a rather large nose
 
 A smelly cigar in the one hand he held
 A signature hat made of floppy gray felt
 He scooped us both up in his arms as he knelt 
 And he tickled me right through my suit
 
 All the performers who came there to play
 Jimmy Durante and young Danny Kaye
 "They'd hang from the rafters," my father would say
 On those magical nights at the Chez
 
 So there on Mom's dresser this photograph sits
 Of Durante and Debbie and David as kids
 Before life got tricky, good God how it did
 And we scattered like leaves in the wind
 
 Dad stayed in Chicago, Mom moved to L.A.
 Deborah's in Portland and I'm day to day
 And the memories and miles seem so far away 
 From those innocent nights at the Chez
 
 So here's to the family, God bless every one
 Though the memories and moments were not always fun
 Somehow we survived them and learned to move on
 Forgiving what nobody knew
 
 All the performers who came there to play
 Sophie Tucker, Nat King Cole, Maurice Chevalier
 And struggling young families finding their way
 Through those magical nights 
 Those innocent nights, those magical nights 
 At the Chez