HE HAD REFINEMENT
From the Broadway Musical "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" (1951)
(Music: Arthur Schwartz / Lyrics: Dorothy Fields)
Shirley Booth (Broadway Production) - 1951
Also recorded by:
Kaye Ballard; Elaine Stritch; Dorothy Fields.
Let me tell'ya about Harry, six-foot-three and all muscle. Thick wavy hair and the biggest pair o' brown eyes ya'ever saw......
I I ever seen a Prince, my Harry was him
Always smelt from peppermints, his person was trim
His voice was passionate, soulful his face was
He never took no liberties, he knew what his place was
He's say, "Pardon my glove", politely when he shook my hand
And he'd pass me the evenin' paper after his soup got fanned
He only used four-letter words I didn't understand
He had refinement
He would never sit down to the table, but what his shirt was on
Or come out of the bathroom drippin' like a dyin' swan
Or call a visitor a slob until the slob had gone
He had refinement
One time he said "May I suggest
you call a lady's chest a chest,
instead of a points of interest"
Dainty....ain't he?
He was shy and awful modest, 'cause he was so high bred
When the wind blew up my bloomers, did his face get red
And he undressed with all the lights off....till we was wed
He had refinement
He would walk next to the gutter, so I shouldn't get hit
With a pillow he'd kill mosquitoes, so I shouldn't get bit
Only certain kinds of exertion for me he'd permit
He had refinement
In the water at Coney Island was our first embrace
When my water wings flew off and hit 'im in the face
He introduced himself before he put 'em back in place
He had refinement
At Luna Park all night we sat
Our food got cold, our beer got flat
I saw what he was driving at
I should've forbid it....but I did it
He had such respect and feelin's all our married life
Just the thought that he might hurt me cut 'im like a knife
And so he never told me that he had another wife
He had refinement
Refinement!
A gentleman to his fingernails was he
(Transcribed from the Elaine Stritch
recording by Mel Priddle - March 2009)
