TOUJOUR GAI
From the Broadway Show "Shinbone Alley" (1957)
(Joe Darion / George Kleinsinger)

Eartha Kitt (Broadway Production) - 1957
Tammy Grimes (TV Production) - 1960
Carol Channing (Animated Film Production) - 1971


My youth I shall never forget
But there's nothing I really regret
The years I have poured down the drain
Have sparkled like gold in champagne

It's cheerio my dearrio
Prance and pirouette
It's cheerio my dearrio
There's a life in me yet

Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai
Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai
I sing all my troubles away

I don't care to cry with a king
But with any old beggar I'll sing
I'll dance in the sun or the shade
To any old tune that is played

I'll sing 'neath a bleary-eyed moon
A rowdy and rollicking tune
But no time for sleeping have I
I'll sleep long enough when I die

It's cheerio my dearrio
Prance and pirouette
It's cheerio my dearrio
There's a life in me yet

Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai
Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai

I'll sing away my troubles
They'll vanish like bubbles
I'll sing all my troubles away
Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai
(Toujour gai, toujour gai, toujour gai)


(Transcribed by Monique Adriaansen & Mel Priddle - April 2005)