TONY BENNETT - STRANGER IN PARADISE

A STRANGER IN PARADISE

TONNY BENNETT

SONGWRITERS: ALEXANDER BORODIN;ROBERT WRIGHT & GEORGE FORREST

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: TAKE MY HAND/LP

LABEL: PHILIPS

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1948

"A Stranger in Paradise" is a popular song from the musical Kismet (1953), and is credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest. Like all the music in that show, the melody was taken from music composed by Alexander Borodin (1833 –1887), in this case, the "Gliding Dance of the Maidens", from the Polovtsian Dances in the opera Prince Igor (1890). The song in the musical is a lovers' duet and describes the transcendent feelings that love brings to their surroundings. Later versions were mostly edited to be sung by male solo artists.

Take my hand

I'm a stranger in paradise

All lost in a wonderland

A stranger in paradise

If I stand starry-eyed

That's a danger in paradise

For mortals who stand beside an angel like you

I saw your face and I ascended

Out of the commonplace into the rare somewhere

In space I hang suspended

Until I know there's a chance that you care

Won't you answer this fervent prayer

Of a stranger in paradise

Don't send me in dark despair

From all that I hunger for

But open your angel's arms

To this stranger in paradise

And tell him that he need be

A stranger no more