COCK-EYED OPTIMIST, A
fr "South Pacific" musical 1949 New York  1951 London  film 1958

Richard Rodgers (m) Oscar Hammerstein II (l) 1949
as rec by Mary Martin w Salvatore Dell'Isola & his Orch 
(1949 stage production)

also rec by-
Mitzi Gaynor '55
Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians '58
Bing Crosby
Stacey Kent
Margaret Whiting


When the sky is a bright canary yellow,
I forget every cloud I've ever seen,
So they called me a cock-eyed optimist,
Immature and incurably green.

I have heard people rant and rave and bellow
That we're done and we might as well be dead,
But I'm only a cock-eyed optimist,
And I can't get it into my head.

I hear the human race
Has fallen on its face,
And hasn't very far to go,
But every whipoorwill
Is selling me a bill,
And telling me it just ain't so!

I could say life is just a bowl of jello,
And appear more intelligent than smart,
But I'm stuck like a dope
With a thing called hope,
And I can't get it out of my heart,
Not this heart!





(Contributed by Peter Akers - September 2010)