Arthur, Lyric Written For Harold Davison, Marion Ryan And Their Pals, 23 October 1994

When Janie and I were first going out with each other, we’d sometimes have Sunday lunch with Kim, Micky, DJ, Gary, Clifford and others. Occasionally Gary’s dad, Harold Davison, would join us.

Harold took an interest in my lyric writing and occasionally asked me to write a lyric for performance at a private party. The lyrics were sometimes to be performed by Harold’s wife, Marion Ryan. Sometimes by Frank Sinatra.

This one was for a banker friend of theirs and I recall it was to be performed by Marion Ryan (although Sinatra had made the song Laura famous, of course).

Harold was most encouraging and more than once said that I should try writing “real lyrics”, reminding me that Sammy Cahn had started by writing spoofs a bit like mine. Flattery will get you everywhere.

On reflection, I suspect that Sammy Cahn (who was very much part of Harold and Marion’s entourage) had been their party lyricist until his untimely demise…around the time Harold started tapping me up for these things…

…still, you can do worse than be the replacement lyricist for Sammy Cahn, even when it is only for private party freebies.

ARTHUR
(To the Tune of “Laura”)

VERSE 1

Arthur,
Mr Crames who is sixty, turns
Share deals, that will rise, never fall;
Self made, warm-hearted and from Bear Stearns,
But won’t say what he earns,
At all;

VERSE 2

You won’t see Arthur,
On the plane that is passing through,
He likes, ranch and beach to be near;
He gave the very best meals to you,
So for Arthur,
Let’s all give a huge cheer.

Postscript

I subsequently found a later version of the Arthur lyric. Then it dawned on me; Harold sent me a recording of Marion Ryan singing the song, so the second version must be my transcription of their tweaked version of the lyric.

It also dawned on me that I might even find the recording somewhere…

…and so I did.

So here is Marion Ryan singing Arthur:

…and here is a link to the their slightly tweaked version of the lyric.