Night Over Shanghai

Written for: The Singing Marine (1937)
Performer: Dick Powell, Doris Weston & Larry Adler (harmonica)
Lyric: Johnny Mercer
Additional British lyric: Charles Dunn
Music: Harry Warren
Year: 1937
Original publisher: Remick Music Corp.

Verse 1:

Lighted lanterns in the doorways of the Shanghai shops,
Slant-eyed merchants counting up their yen,
Tired coolies padding homeward as the daylight stops,
And the twilight fills the winding streets with ragged beggar-men,
So the sleepy city goes to sleep again, and then;

Chorus 1:

Night over Shanghai, moon on the rise,
Pale yellow faces with sad old eyes;
Night over Shanghai, lips painted red
Smile from the windows just overhead.
Oh, where are the dreams gone up in smoke?
Where are the dreamers who never awoke?
They're gone, like the driftwood, gone out of sight,
In the darkness over Shanghai in the night.

Chorus 2 (from movie):

Night over Shanghai, under your veil;
Dressed like a siren with dreams for sale.
Pale hands that beckon, eyes that are bright;
These are the blossoms that bloom in the night.
Oh, city of dreams, if it were told;
How many heartaches you could unfold;
And how many dreamers fade out of sight?
In the darkness over Shanghai in the night.

Verse 2 (from British sheet music):

Misty shadows from the harbour, moving to and fro;
What can be their mission at this hour?
Gliding softly through the waters, silently they go;
As though they are sped along by some great unseen hidden pow'r,
Slanting moonbeams on the dim light intervene the scene.

[Chorus]