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Some thirty-odd years ago when I was threeMy sister a couple years older than meWe'd get to go down to the old Chez Paree On the North side of downtown ChicagoMy dad worked the door with a wide-open hand Tuxedo-ed and tailored, a most handsome man My mother auditioned to sing with the bandThe most beautiful girl in the roomAll the performers who came there to playSinatra and Bennett and young Mel Torme"They'd hang from the rafters," my father would sayOn those magical nights at the Chez One evening that winter my sister and meAll dressed up and bow-tied and cute as could beWe found ourselves leaning on opposite knees Of a man with a rather large noseA smelly cigar in the one hand he heldA signature hat made of floppy gray feltHe scooped us both up in his arms as he knelt And he tickled me right through my suitAll the performers who came there to playLetras de cancionesJimmy Durante and young Danny Kaye"They'd hang from the rafters," my father would sayOn those magical nights at the ChezSo there on Mom's dresser this photograph sitsOf Durante and Debbie and David as kidsBefore life got tricky, good God how it didAnd we scattered like leaves in the windDad stayed in Chicago, Mom moved to L.A.Deborah's in Portland and I'm day to dayAnd the memories and miles seem so far away From those innocent nights at the Chez So here's to the family, God bless every oneThough the memories and moments were not always funSomehow we survived them and learned to move onForgiving what nobody knew All the performers who came there to playSophie Tucker, Nat King Cole, Maurice ChevalierAnd struggling young families finding their wayThrough those magical nights Those innocent nights, those magical nights At the Chez From Letras Mania