Playboy of the Western World

knew a man once, very long ago:
they say that he was born in Buffalo,
but I don't believe it -
Buffalo was never sufficiently gilded and pearled.

And this man turned out to be
the playboy of the western world.

Oh, he was elegant past all dreaming;
he made seeming seem like the real McCoy.
All the sheiks of Araby, all the shahs of Persia
couldn't hold a candle to this boy.

When he walked through a room
it looked as handsome as Napoleon's tomb,
and the Ford he rode
could have been Mercedes-Benz à la mode.

When he took me out I didn't doubt
that we were going to the Astor or the Sherry-Netherland.
Spring seemed to linger
in the little bunch of flowers he pressed into my hand -

Little bunch of flowers, didn't cost a dime.
Picked them in the park in their prime.

He went around with his heart unfurled:
the one and only playboy of the western world.
You could fall in love with everyone you'd meet
when you walked with him down the street.

Playboys die young; this one did too.
All worn out making dreams come true.

And the world was grim again, without him again,
without him -

For he was elegant past all dreaming;
he made seeming seem like the real McCoy.
All the sheiks of Araby, all the shahs of Persia
couldn't hold a candle to this boy.

When they took him out, oh, I didn't doubt
that he was going to Miami or some other wonderland.
Spring seemed to linger
in the little bunch of flowers I pressed into his hand -

Little bunch of flowers, didn't cost a dime.
Picked them in the park in their prime.

He went around with his heart unfurled:
the one and only playboy of the western world.
He was the playboy of the western world,
the playboy of the western world.