ONLY A GLASS OF CHAMPAGNE
(Noel Gay / Wimperis)

as recorded by Gracie Fields
with Robert Farnon & his Orchestra
May 1949 London


Here is a picture, a man and a girl
Strolling along in the shade.
He is a Marquis, the son of an Earl,
She is a pure village maid.

He tells her he loves her again and again,
She thinks he is honest and true,
And then on the night that he gave her champagne,
He did what he ought not to do!

Only a glass of champagne,
But it's led a young girl into sin!
Only a glass of champagne
Was the door where the devil crept in!

It's just an old story, it's always the same,
Just like poor moth she flew too near the flame!
She opened her wings and she lost her good name,
All through a glass of champagne!

Think of her future, the sorrow, the shame,
Neither a maid nor a wife.
Think of her parents who gave her the name
She has dishonoured for life!]

Now what's to become of her, spurned and reviled,
Into oblivion hurled?
And what can she offer the fatherless child
That she has brought into the world?

Only a glass of champagne,
But it's led a young girl into sin!
Only a glass of champagne
Was the door where the devil crept in!

She lost her honour in sorrow and shame,
With her false lover she pleaded in vain!
But by the next morning she'd lost it again,
All through a glass of champagne!

So all you young maidens, (well, never mind),
take warning from her,
If you should go out with a Lord or a Sir,
Be careful you don't let the same thing occur
All through a glass of champagne!
(Oh dear, it should never have happened to me!)




(Transcribed by Peter Akers - May 2017)