dangermousie | One of my favorite songs

is "Love Can't Happen" from Broadway adaptation of "Grand Hotel" (if you ever want to read a depressing but good book, read Vicki Baum's 1930s novel or the watch 1932 Best Picture winner).

One of the saddest things in the story is the quite doomed love between an aging ballerina and an aristocrat who had been reduced to crime to pay for his lifestyle.

Well, one of my all time favorite Broadway songs is the one the Baron sings to the Ballerina. Just because, the lyrics are behind the cut.

Mademoiselle, I have followed you ev'rywhere
Almost throughout your career
London, Vienna, Paree,
I've admired you, hoping one day we might meet in this way
Though I never thought I'd be carried away
Oh, I knew you'd be beautiful, but not so beautiful...

Why am I talking this way?
Can this be real to me?
Nonsense, my boy
You knew she'd be beautiful, but not so beautiful...

Love can't happen quite so quickly!
Not unless I dreamed you beautifly and sweetly.
No, don't look thorough me so clearly ,
I might very nearly lose myself completely.
Who could ever have suspected
You would make me tremble so?
I can't think of any answer
Other than if love comes,
When love comes, you know.

What is this I'm saying, what is this I'm feeling?
Like I'm getting drunk looking in her eyes.
Overwhelming face, utterly appealing,
Never mind the truth, never mind the lies,
Never mind a thought in the world except...

Love can't happen quite so quickly,
But I'm filled with no one but her, no one but her.
No, don't look thorough me so clearly,
I might very nearly lose myself completely.
Who could ever have suspected
I would be trembling here so?
I can't think of any answer,
Other than if love comes,
When love comes, you know.

And I know.