Songs and Lyrics (Lehrer)/Hey, Joe

by Thomas Andrew Lehrer and Giovanni Capurro

Author’s note:

The Gallery (1947) was a highly successful novel by John Horne Burns, based on his experiences in the American Army of Occupation in Naples in 1944.

In 1951 I and a fellow graduate student at Harvard, Eloise Knapp, briefly considered writing a musical based on the book. The project was soon abandoned. This is one of the few surviving fragments of the prospective score. It was intended to be sung by a group of scugnizzi (Neapolitan street urchins) to an Americn soldier, while a nearby Neapolitan singer sings "O Sole Mio".

HEY, JOE!

(The two parts are to be sung simultaneously)

SCUGNIZZI:	NEAPOLITAN SINGER:[1]
Hey, Joe!	Ma n’atu sole
You wanna meet my sister?	Cchiù bello oi nè
Hey, Joe!	O’ sole mio
She’s only seventeen.	Sta ‘nfronte a te
Hey, Joe!	‘O sole
You oughta meet my sister,	‘O sole mio
	Sta ‘nfronte a te
The prettiest piece-a tail you ever seen.	Sta ‘nfronte a te
(alt: little thing)
Whaddaya say? Hey, Joe! Whaddaya say? Hey, Joe! etc. (fading out as they exit)

1. “O Sole mio” was written in 1898 by Giovanni Capurro (lyrics) and Eduardo di Capua and Alfredo Mazzucchi (music).