Poor Butterfly

By Raymond Hubbell & John Golden
1916

A popular standard of the late Gilded Age, the tune was composed by Hubbell & Golden as a pop take on the immensely popular Puccini opera Madame Butterfly, which had premiered in the U.S. a decade earlier. In fact, the verse even contains a fragment from the opera's second act. It was originally written for the New York Hippodrome musical revue The Big Show, in which it was introduced by Sophie Bernard.

Lyrics:

There's a story told of a little Japanese,
Sitting demurely 'neath the cherry blossom trees.
Miss Butterfly's her name.
A sweet little innocent child was she,
'Till a fine young American from the sea
To her garden came.
They met 'neath the cherry blossoms everyday,
And he taught her how to love the American way.
To love with her soul t'was easy to learn.
Then he sailed away with a promise to return.

Poor Butterfly,
'Neath the blossoms waiting.
Poor Butterfly,
For she loved him so.
The moments pass into hours.
The hours pass into years.
And as she smiles through her tears,
She murmurs low:

"The moon and I
Know that he'll be faithful.
I'm sure he'll come
To me by and by.
But if he won't come back,
Then I'll never sigh or cry,
I just must die."

Poor Butterfly.

Recorded By:

Sarah Vaughan
Benny Goodman
Frank Sinatra
Deanna Durbin
Red Nichols & His Five Pennies