THESE FOOLISH THINGS

Eric Maschwitz 1901-69

A cigarette that bears a lipstick's traces,

An airline ticket to romantic places,

And still my heart has wings,

These foolish things remind me of you.

A tinkling piano in the next apartment,

Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant,

A fairground's painted swings,

These foolish things remind me of you.

You came, you saw, you conquered me,

When you did that to me

I knew somehow this had to be.

The winds of march that make my heart a dancer,

A telephone that rings but who's to answer? 

Oh, how the ghost of you clings,

These foolish things remind me of you.

Eric Maschwitz was an English entertainer, writer, broadcaster and broadcasting executive. He was romantically linked to the Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong while working in Hollywood, and the lyrics of "These Foolish Things" are about his longing for her after they parted and he returned to Britain.

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