For New Orleans

[annathepiper]

This song has been stuck in my head all morning. It's from the soundtrack to Elvis Presley's best movie, King Creole. In the recording, it's played up-tempo, saucy, with a lot of brass. Right now, though... I'm more thinking a single soulful-voiced singer at a piano in a smoke-filled bar, slow tempo, soft volume, and a lone spotlight. Right now it feels like it ought to be a bluesy lament.

I really hope the last verse of the song picks up its tempo again. I want to hear those horns coming back.

"New Orleans"
Sid Tepper & Roy C. Bennett

You'll never know
What heaven means
Until you been down to New Orleans
You ain't been livin' till you cuddle and coo
With a black-eyed baby by the old bayou

You've never seen
You've never seen those kewpie doll queens like they got 'em
(Where?) In New Orleans
Ooh-ooh, they love you like-uh no one can
It makes you awful glad that you were born a man

If you ain't been there
Then you ain't been nowhere
The livin's lazy and the lovin's fine
If you feel low down
So help me Hannah
You're sure to lose the blues in Louisi-ouisi-ouisiana

So get the lead
Get the lead outta your jeans and hot-foot it down, hot-foot it down to where?
New Orleans
Louisiana baby tells you stay awhile
Live it up
Love it up
Southern style
Way down in New
New Orleans