But there's one heart beyond compare I found devotion in Italy Where sweet romance fills the air In the heart of dear old Italy There's a loving heart that's waiting there for me In that land of love and melody There live sunny skies, blue sparking eyes, I see Oh, the fragrance of a wondrous night A sweet whisper of a love so heavenly No part, oh how I long for you, sweetheart In the heart of old Italy Oh,
sweet ecstasy drives all care away Makes nature gay and guides my way Life's sweet tragedy brings sweet moments of bliss to all I found my heart's ease in Italy Still days of love I recall In the heart of dear old Italy There's a loving heart that's waiting there for me In that land of love and melody There live sunny skies, blue sparking eyes, I see Oh, the fragrance of a wondrous night A sweet whisper of a love so heavenly No part,
oh how I long for you, sweetheart In the heart of old Italy La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la In the heart of dear old Italy There's a loving heart that's waiting there for me In that land of love and melody There live sunny skies, blue sparking eyes, I see Oh, the fragrance of a wondrous night A sweet whisper of a love so heavenly No part, oh how I long for you, sweetheart In the heart of old Italy
Transcribed by AI from the recording above. These are noisy hundred-year-old cylinders, so expect misheard words and the occasional invented line — trust your ears over the text.
Audio public domain, courtesy of the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive. Transcript CC BY 4.0. Free to reuse, including commercially, with credit.
Metropolitan Quartet
A studio ensemble rather than a touring band. Record companies kept groups of session players on call and issued them under a rotating set of house names — the personnel overlapped heavily from one to the next, and the name on the label indicated the kind of music inside more than who was performing it. Individual players were rarely credited, and for most of these ensembles the membership is now unrecoverable.
Written from UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive. Corrections welcome.