Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

From the musical “Oh Boy!”
Words by P. G. Wodehouse
Music by Jerome Kern

Sung by Laurence Rubenstein
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne

Get the sheet music and accompaniment here:
sheetmusicsinger.com/an-old-fashioned-wife

Lyrics

1. The modern wife leads a dreadful life
That seems the modern fashion
For wicked ways and cabarets
She seems to have a passion
I never shall be up-to-date
That sort of thing, I know I’d hate, so

REFRAIN
I want to be a good little wife
In the good old fashioned way
I’ll honor and obey
From my home I’ll never stray
Although the thing that’s smart, is
To be out all night at parties
I’ll be sitting with my knitting
In the good old fashioned way

2. It’s thought quite queer
If they last a year
These marriages that we know
You’ve hardly cried, “Here comes the bride”
Before she’s off to Reno
They’ll have to change it I suppose
From “Here she comes” to “There she goes”, but

REFRAIN
I want to be a good little wife
In the good old fashioned way
Forever and a day
Till our two heads are bent and gray
Through days serene and stormy
There will be but one man for me
And we’ll weather life together
In the good old fashioned way

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------