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12th Street Rag

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12th Street Rag (1919)
Euday L. Bowman (music) and James S. Sumner (lyrics)
75750412th Street Rag1919Euday L. Bowman (music) and James S. Sumner (lyrics)
Sheet music with lyrics (browse)
VERSE 1

In a certain city, where the girls are cute and pretty,
they have a raggy jazzy jazz-time tune.
When you heart that syncopated Jazz crated melody
you could dance all morning night and noon,

When the slide trombone and moaning saxophone begin to play,
It will make you sad, 'twill make you glad
Oh! Boy, What Joy,

Burn my clothes for I'm in Heaven, Wish I had a million women,
Soloman in all his glory, could have told another story,
Were he but living here today,
With his thousand wives or more, a Jazz-Band on some Egypt shore,
he could dance the night and day away.

I will tell you how they dance
That tantalizing 12th. Street Rag.

CHORUS

First you slide and then you glide,
then you shimmie for a while;
To the left then to the right
"Lame Duck" "Get over Sal"

Watch your step then Pirouette,
Fox Trot, then squeeze your pal
Over you comes stealing such a funny feeling
'till you feel your senses reeling,

tantalizing, hypnotizing, mesmerizing strain,
I can't get enough of it please play it o'er again;
I could dance forever to this refrain,
To that 12th. Street, Oh you 12th. Street Rag.

VERSE 2

Jazztime music is the rage, this is a syncopated age,
ev'rybody loves a jazztime tune.
For the music captivating, sets your heart a palpitating
you just can't make your feet behave,

Ancient youths of sixty four, do steps they never did before,
Father time is mad, no one grows old.
Oh! Boy, What Joy,

Put your loving arms around me, Say Babe, ain't you glad you found me,
Cleopatra on the Nile, could vamp right in the latest style,
If she'd only known this ragtime tune;
Old King Cole a merry soul, called for his pipe and then his bowl,
and the first jazz-band his fiddlers three,

Play, oh play me while I dance
That tantalizing 12th. Street Rag.

CHORUS

First you slide and then you glide,
then you shimmie for a while;
To the left then to the right
"Lame Duck" "Get over Sal"

Watch your step then Pirouette,
Fox Trot, then squeeze your pal
Over you comes stealing such a funny feeling
'till you feel your senses reeling,

tantalizing, hypnotizing, mesmerizing strain,
I can't get enough of it please play it o'er again;
I could dance forever to this refrain,
To that 12th. Street, Oh you 12th. Street Rag.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1959, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 64 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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