I knew a man once, very long ago: they say that he was born in Buffalo, but I don’t believe it - Buffalo was never sufficiently gilded and pearled.
And this man turned out to be the playboy of the western world.
Oh, he was elegant past all dreaming; he made seeming seem like the real McCoy. All the sheiks of Araby, all the shahs of Persia couldn’t hold a candle to this boy.
When he walked through a room it looked as handsome as Napoleon’s tomb, and the Ford he rode could have been Mercedes-Benz à la mode.
When he took me out I didn’t doubt that we were going to the Astor or the Sherry-Netherland. Spring seemed to linger in the little bunch of flowers he pressed into my hand -
Little bunch of flowers, didn’t cost a dime. Picked them in the park in their prime.
He went around with his heart unfurled: the one and only playboy of the western world. You could fall in love with everyone you’d meet when you walked with him down the street.
Playboys die young; this one did too. All worn out making dreams come true.
And the world was grim again, without him again, without him -
For he was elegant past all dreaming; he made seeming seem like the real McCoy. All the sheiks of Araby, all the shahs of Persia couldn’t hold a candle to this boy.
When they took him out, oh, I didn’t doubt that he was going to Miami or some other wonderland. Spring seemed to linger in the little bunch of flowers I pressed into his hand -
Little bunch of flowers, didn’t cost a dime. Picked them in the park in their prime.
He went around with his heart unfurled: the one and only playboy of the western world. He was the playboy of the western world, the playboy of the western world.