EGYPTIAN ELLA
(Walter Doyle 1930)

Ted Lewis & his Orchestra 1931
recorded by -
Billy Cotton & his Band 1931
Ted Lewis & his Orchestra 1931
Steve Waddell's Creole Belles 1990
Jack Hylton & his Orchestra
Audrey Lavine
The Pasadena Roof Orchestra
Ted Weems


Ella was a dancing girl who started getting fat,
Every day brought two more pounds to Ella,
Till one day she found she'd lost her job because of that,
Then to make it worse, she lost her fella!
And so she sailed to Egypt to forget,
But she made such a hit that she's there yet!

If you hear of a gal who can shake and quake
Till it makes you think of a nervous snake,
They're speaking of Egyptian Ella!
She weighs two-twenty but they don't care,
They like 'em plenty that way out there,
She has the love of every fella!
She does a dance and when she starts, by the River Nile,
The boys all take their old sweethearts and throw 'em to the crocodiles!
Every sheik in the audience jumps up, and yells that she's immense,
How they love Egyptian Ella!

All the other dancers, from the desert to the Nile,
One by one admit that they are jealous,
For although they dance each night and wear their sweetest smile,
Ella's tent's the one that draws the fellas!
And yet her dance is something they can't steal,
For nothing else could do it but an eel!

When the first sweet notes of the music sound,
The boys all gather from miles around,
Just to see Egyptian Ella!
And folks all know when those caravans
Start pouring in from the desert sands
That it must be Egyptian Ella!
Then Mister Sphinx sits up and blinks,
There's so much to see,
She squirms and shakes so the worms and snake
All bite themselves from jealousy!
She's a great big gal in a great big land
And the boys all give her a great big hand,
How they love Egyptian Ella!

The boys hang around, but she plainly states
She doesn't care a fig about dates,
And they can't make Egyptian Ella!
A sheik tried to kidnap her once, I'm told,
But she shook so much that he lost his hold,
He couldn't take Egyptian Ella!
So the Pash wrote her a royal note with his royal fist,
It said because of the dance she does, she's on his royal waiting list,
And that's how fame of a diff'rent sort
Has come at last from an indoor sport,
To our own Egyptian Ella!



(Contributed by Peter Akers - October 2018)