NIGHTS AT THE CHEZ   © 1991 David Roth

Some thirty-odd years ago when I was three

My sister a couple years older than me

We'd get to go down to the old Chez Paree 

On the North side of downtown Chicago

My Dad worked the door with a wide-open hand 

Tuxedoed and tailored, a most handsome man     

My Mother auditioned to sing with the band

The most beautiful girl in the room

All the performers who came there to play

Sinatra and Bennett and young Mel Torme

"They'd hang from the rafters" my father would say

On those magical nights at the Chez

One evening that winter my sister and me

All dressed up and bow-tied and cute as could be

We found ourselves leaning on opposite knees 

Of a man with a rather large nose

A smelly cigar in the one hand he held

A signature hat made of floppy grey felt

He scooped us both up in his arms as he knelt 

And he tickled me right through my suit

All the performers who came there to play

Jimmy Durante and young Danny Kaye

"They'd hang from the rafters" my father would say

On those magical nights at the Chez

So there on Mom's dresser this photograph sits

Of Durante and Debbie and David as kids

Before life got tricky, good God how it did

And we scattered like leaves in the wind

Dad stayed in Chicago, Mom moved to L.A.

Deborah's in Portland and I'm day to day

And the memories and miles seem so far away 

From those innocent nights at the Chez

So here's to the family, God bless every one

Though the memories and moments were not always fun

Somehow we survived them and learned to move on

Forgiving what nobody knew

All the performers who came there to play

Sophie Tucker, Nat King Cole, Maurice Chevalier

And struggling young families finding their way

Through those magical nights 

Those innocent nights ... those magical nights 

At the Chez