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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
A 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,
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.

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