[00:13.01]Some thirty-odd years ago when I was three
[00:17.92]My sister a couple years older than me
[00:23.19]We'd get to go down to the old Chez Paree
[00:27.78]On the North side of downtown Chicago
[00:33.17]My dad worked the door with a wide-open hand
[00:37.64]Tuxedo-ed and tailored, a most handsome man
[00:43.90]My mother auditioned to sing with the band
[00:48.42]The most beautiful girl in the room
[00:54.56]All the performers who came there to play
[00:59.09]Sinatra and Bennett and young Mel Torme
[01:05.58]"They'd hang from the rafters," my father would say
[01:10.27]On those magical nights at the Chez
[01:23.25]One evening that winter my sister and me
[01:27.32]All dressed up and bow-tied and cute as could be
[01:32.59]We found ourselves leaning on opposite knees
[01:36.93]Of a man with a rather large nose
[01:42.07]A smelly cigar in the one hand he held
[01:46.91]A signature hat made of floppy gray felt
[01:52.92]He scooped us both up in his arms as he knelt
[01:57.95]And he tickled me right through my suit
[02:03.98]All the performers who came there to play
[02:08.48]Jimmy Durante and young Danny Kaye
[02:15.07]"They'd hang from the rafters," my father would say
[02:19.67]On those magical nights at the Chez
[02:56.47]So there on Mom's dresser this photograph sits
[03:00.77]Of Durante and Debbie and David as kids
[03:05.86]Before life got tricky, good God how it did
[03:10.81]And we scattered like leaves in the wind
[03:16.03]Dad stayed in Chicago, Mom moved to L.A.
[03:20.90]Deborah's in Portland and I'm day to day
[03:27.45]And the memories and miles seem so far away
[03:32.49]From those innocent nights at the Chez
[03:38.87]So here's to the family, God bless every one
[03:43.38]Though the memories and moments were not always fun
[03:50.00]Somehow we survived them and learned to move on
[03:55.26]Forgiving what nobody knew
[04:00.63]All the performers who came there to play
[04:05.18]Sophie Tucker, Nat King Cole, Maurice Chevalier
[04:12.42]And struggling young families finding their way
[04:17.67]Through those magical nights
[04:20.68]Those innocent nights, those magical nights
[04:29.01]At the Chez
[05:04.94]