The Last Time I Saw Paris

Words & Music by Oscar Hammerstein II & Jerome Kern
Recorded by Tony Martin, 1941

     D        A7     D
The last time I saw Paris,

     D        Cdim      A7
Her heart was warm and gay;

   Em7       A7      Gm       A7
I heard the laughter of her heart

   Em7     A7      D
In ev'ry street café.


     D        A7     D
The last time I saw Paris,

    D         Cdim          A7
Her trees were dressed for spring,

     Em7   A7         Gm         A7
And lovers walked beneath those trees

     Em7         A7       D
And birds found songs to sing.


Bridge:

  Bm7-5      E7      Bm7-5  E7      Bm7-5     E7         A
I dodged the same old taxi cabs that  I  had dodged for years;

   C#m7-5  F#7       B      G#m       Em7  Fdim    A7
The chorus of their squeeky horns was music to my ears.


     D        A7     D
The last time I saw Paris, 

     D        Cdim      A7
Her heart was warm and gay;

   Em7    A7        F#m   Cdim
No matter how they change her,

       Em7   Gdim       D6
I'll remember her that way.


This song was written early in World War II at a time when the long-term uture of the city was very much in doubt; the wistful lyric acknowledges that the Paris the world had known might never again exist.


 
The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.