I WENT [I'VE BEEN] TO A MARVELLOUS PARTY
fr "Set To Music" 1939 review London pb Beatrice Lillie
Noel Coward  1939

Beatrice Lillie w Will Irwin (piano)  rec 1939


Quite for no reason
I'm here for the season,
And high as a kite!
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
Living in error
With Maude at Castella,
Which couldn't be right!

Everyone's here, frightfully gay,
Nobody cares what people say,
Though the Riviera
Semms really much queerer
Than Rome at it's height!
Yesterday night;

I went to a marvellous party
With Nunu and Nada and Nell.
It was in the fresh air
And we went as we were,
And we stayed as we were,
Which was hell!

Poor Grace started singing at midnight,
And she didn't stop singing till four!
We knew the excitement was bound to begin
When Laura got blind on Dubonnet and gin,
And scratched a veneer with a Cartier pin!
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
I couldn't have liked it more!

I've been to a marvellous party,
I must say the fun was intense!
we all had to do
What the people we knew
Would be doing a hundred years hence!

Dear Cecil arrived wearing armour,
Some shells and a black feather boa.
Poor Millicent wore a surrealist comb,
Made of bits of mosaic from Saint Peters in Rome,
But the weight was so great she had to go home!
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
I couldn't have liked it more!

Peter's behaviour,
Away from Belgravia,
Would make you aghast!
So much variety,
Watching society
Scampering past!

If you had any mind at all,
Gibbons' divine "Decline And Fall"
Seems to the nosey
No more than a whimsy!
By way of contrast,
Saturday last;

I went to a marvellous party,
But didn't start dinner till ten;
And young Bobby Carr
Did a stunt at the bar
With a lot of extraordinary men!  Mmmm!

Dear Baba arrived with a turtle,
Which shattered us all to the core!
The Grand Duke was dancing a rumba with me,
When suddenly Cyril screamed, "Fiddle-de-de!",
And ripped off his trousers and jumped in the sea!
Ha-ha-ha-ha!
I couldn't have liked it more!

I've been to a marvellous party,
Elyse made an entrance with May;
You'd never have guessed
>From her fisherman's vest
That her bust had been whittled away!

Poor Lulu got fried on Chianti,
And talked about esprit-de-corps.
Maurice made a couple of pounds at guss,
And Freddy, who hates any kind of fuss,
Did half the big apple and twisted his truss!
I couldn't have liked it more!







(Contributed by Peter Akers - February 2010)