Sheet Music Singer | That Opera Rag (1910) @sheetmusicsinger9651 | Uploaded August 2024 | Updated October 2024, 3 minutes ago.
From the comedy “Mrs. Jim”, 1910
Words by Irving Berlin
Music by Ted Snyder

Lyrics

1. Sam Johnson was op’ra mad
He sho’ had the fever bad
He said, “Those ordinary ragtime tunes are mild
Some music from Verdi’s hand
Or any old op’ra grand
Would never fail to set this op’ra darkie wild”
One evening at a ball
They heard Sam Johnson call
Unto the leaderman to play some “William Tell”
The leader swelled his chest and said, “I’ll do my best”
So when he played they heard Sam Johnson yell

Chorus
Hear dat strain
Mister Verdi come to life again
Oh that operatic sweet refrain
Sho’ would drive a crazy man insane
Just let me die and meet those brainy men
Who manufactured notes of opera grand
Oh! Verdi where, where oh art thou?
Let me shake you by the hand
Man, you know what’s grand
Good Lord, it’s over
They’re playin’ “Home Sweet Home”

2. Old Sam was a painter man
One day with a brush in hand
He stood upon a scaffold ‘way up in the air
A German band below
Was playin’ some Rigletto
Sam said, “I know that’s op’ra, be it here or there”
While he daubed up the wall
He tried hard not to fall
But in the street the band kept right on playin’ fair
They played some “Faust” below
Just then old Sam let go
He tumbled down below a-shouting in the air

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Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein.
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne.
Get the sheet music and MIDI at:
sheetmusicsinger.com/that-opera-rag