Got the cutest little way,
Like to watch you all the day,
And it certainly seems fine
Just to think that you’ll be mine.
When I see your pretty smile
Makes the living worth the while,
So I’ve got to run around
Telling people what I’ve found.
And when I told them
How beautiful you are
They didn’t believe me!
They didn’t believe me!
Your lips, your eyes, your cheeks,
your hair are in a class beyond compare,
You’re the loveliest girl that one could see!
And when I tell them,
And I certn’ly am goin’ to tell them,
That I’m the man whose wife one day you’ll be.
They’ll never believe me,
They’ll never believe me,
That from this great big world
you’ve chosen me!
Don’t know how it happen’d quite,
May have been the summer night,
May have been, well, who can say!
Things just happen any way.
All I know is I said “Yes!”
Hesitating more or less,
And you kissed me where I stood,
Just like any fellow would.
And when I told them how wonderful you are
They didn’t believe me! They didn’t believe me!
Your lips, your eyes, your curly hair
are in a class beyond compare,
You’re the lovliest thing that one could see!
And when I tell them,
And I certn’ly am goin’ to tell them,
That I’m the girl whose boy one day you’ll be,
They’ll never believe me,
They’ll never believe me,
That from this great big world
you’ve chosen me!
The timing of the song’s arrival (the outbreak of World War I) meant that it was one of many songs adapted by soldiers in the trenches – on this occasion an ironic take on the allegedly ‘easy’ life in the trenches.
It is featured in that form (retitled “We’ll Never Tell Them”) at the end of Richard Attenborough’s 1969 film Oh! What a Lovely War.