[1st verse:]
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The cowboys, the wrestlers, the tumblers, the clowns
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The roustabouts that move the show at dawn
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The music, the spotlight, the people, the towns
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Your baggage with the labels pasted on
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The sawdust and the horses and the smell
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The towel you've taken from the last hotel
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[1st refrain:]
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There's no business like show business
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Like no business I know
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Ev'rything about it is appealing
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Ev'rything the traffic will allow
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Nowhere could you have that happy feeling
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When you are stealing that extra bow
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There's no people like show people
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They smile when they are low
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Yesterday they told you you would not go far
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That night you open and there you are
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Next day on your dressing room they've hung a star
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Let's go on with the show
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[2nd verse:]
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The costumes, the scenery, the make-up, the props
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The audience that lifts you when you're down
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The headaches, the heartaches, the backaches, the flops
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The sheriff who escorts you out of town
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The op'ning when your heart beats like a drum
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The closing when the customers won't come
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[2nd refrain:]
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There's no business like show business
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Like no business I know
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You get word before the show has started
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That your fav'rite uncle died at dawn
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'Top of that your ma and pa have parted
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You're broken-hearted but you go on
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There's no people like show people
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They don't run out of dough
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Angels come from everywhere with lots of jack
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And when you lose it there's no attack
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Where could you get money that you don't give back?
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Let's go on with the show
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[3rd refrain:]
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There's no business like show business
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If you tell me it's so
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Trav'ling thro' the country will be thrilling
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Standing out in front on opening nights
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Smiling as you watch the benches filling
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And see your billing out there in lights
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There's no people like show people
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They smile when they are low
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Even with a turkey that you know will fold
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You may be stranded out in the cold
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Still you wouldn't 'change for a sack of gold
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Let's go on with the show
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Let's go on with the show
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[Reprise:]
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There's no business like show business
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Like no business I know
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All made up and soon you'll be appearing
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Ev'ry bit of nervousness is gone
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Then the sound that's music to your hearing
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To hear them cheering when you come on
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There's no people like show people
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They smile when they are low
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How I wish the folks at home could only see
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What's come to Annie, how proud they'd be
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Gettin' paid for doin' what comes natur'lly
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Let's go on with the show
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[Alternate Verse:]
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The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk
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Are secretly unhappy men because
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The butcher, the baker, the grocer, the clerk
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Get paid for what they do but no applause
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They'd gladly bid their dreary jobs good-bye
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For anything theatrical and why
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[Alternate lines:]
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How you worried using half the night up
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Waiting 'til the morning papers came
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What a moment when your face will light up
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To see the write-up and see your name
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Everything inside you starts to shake up
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When your picture in the news appears
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And the thrill each morning when you wake up
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With daubs of make-up behind your ears
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[Alternate version written for Mary Martin
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When she played Dallas, Texas, in 1955:]
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There's no business like show business
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Like no business I know
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Playing Broadway at the famous Palace
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Don't compare with this, it's simply grand.
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Ask me how I feel to be in Dallas;
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Like little Alice in Wonderland.
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There's no people like show people,
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They smile when they are low.
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Who'd have thought when I was on my mother's knee
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I'd be in Texas? But here I be
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Gettin' paid for doin' what comes natur'lly:
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Let's go on with the show.
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-----------------
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There's No Business Like Show Business
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| Irving Berlin |
