one of those songs, you know . . .

I get too hungry for dinner at eight.
I like the theater but never go late.
I just don’t bother with people I hate,
and so they say this lady is a tramp.


Won’t go to crap games w/ barons and earls.
Don’t go in Harlem in sables and pearls.
Don’t ditch the dirt, well not w/ the girls,
and so they say this lady is a tramp!


I like that free, fresh wind in my hair,
my life without care.
I’m broke, okey-doke.
Hey, California gets cold, gets damp,
and so they say this lady is a tramp!

more tempo with Della Reese pronouncing the words very deliberately

Now, I get much too hungry
to be waiting for dinner at eight!
I’m crazy about the theater
but I don’t dig it if I’m late!
Who’s got time to be bothered
with people you know you hate?
And so they say this lady is a tramp!


I just cannot afford a crap game
with a baron or an earl,
and I’m very hep to Harlem —
I wanna keep my sables and I love my pearls!
I play with boys,
and the boys play with girls,
and so they say this lady is a tramp!


I like that free, fresh wind all in my hair,
my life without care.
I was born broke, so it’s okey-doke!
Don’t like Guy Lombardo,
I dig Basie, Ellington, and Hebb,
and so they say this lady is a tramp!
. . .

conducted by Neal Hefti

Richard Rodgers

Lorenz Hart

composer
lyricist
1937
The title of the song is The Lady is a Tramp, but these lyrics say this lady. So this lady it is!
Della Reese goes off the cuff and does not sing the entire song but sings it like no other! And I can’t help but play it 2 or 3 times when it comes on. One of those songs that I’d like to perform (whaaaat? i can’t even sing!) or dance to in public.
DON’T. ASK. ME. WHY. I don’t know.

there’s one more line at the end, but i cannot make it out.

if you do, would you tell me?