There's No Business Like Show Business

Words & Music:

Irving Berlin

 

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The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk are secretly unhappy men because

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The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk get paid for what they do but no applause.

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They'd gladly bid their dreary jobs goodbye for anything theatrical, and why?

 

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There's no business like show business, like no business I know.

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Everything about it is appealing, everything the traffic will allow.

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Nowhere could you get that happy feeling when you are stealing that extra bow.

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There's no people like show people, they smile when they are low.

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Even with a turkey that you know will fold, you may be stranded out in the cold.

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Still you wouldn't change for a sack of gold, let's go on with the show!

 

The costumes, the scenery, the make-up, the props, the audience that lifts you when you're down.

The headaches, the heartaches, the backaches, the flops,

The sheriff who escorts you out of town.

The opening when your heart beats like a drum.  The closing when the customers won't come.

 

There's no business like show business, like no business I know.

You get word before the show has started that your favorite uncle died at dawn.

Top of that, your ma and pa have parted, you're broken-hearted, but you go on.

There's no people like show people, they don't run out of dough.

Angels come from everywhere with lots of jack and when you lose it there's no attack.

Where could you get money that you don't give back?  Let's go on with the show!

 

The cowboys, the tumblers, the wrestlers, the clowns,

The roustabouts that move the show at dawn.

The music, the spotlight, the people, the towns, your baggage with the labels pasted on.

The sawdust and the horses and the smell, the towel you've taken from the last hotel.

 

There's no business like show business, like no business I know.

Traveling through the country will be thrilling, standing out in front on opening nights.

Smiling as you watch the theater filling and there's your billing out there in lights.

There's no people like show people, they smile when they are low.

Yesterday they told you you would not go far, that night you open and there you are.

Next day on your dressing room they've hung a star, let's go on with the show!

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Let's go on with the show!