SALAAMING THE RAJAH
Type
Song
Composer
Harry Tierney
Lyricist
Josesph McCarthy
Publisher
Harms, Inc.
Show/Movie
Cross My Heart
Notes
From the Broadway show “Cross My Heart,” book by Daniel Kusell, staged by John Harwood, musical numbers by Sammy Lee. Opened Sept. 17, 1928 and ran for 64 performances. Reviewed in the New York Times Sept. 18, 1928, p. 32, the plot is briefly summarized: “There is a great to-do about the girl who is in love with one of those super-aristocrats, the Van Nesses of New York. He-the Van Ness-leads an orchestra in a Greenwich Village cabaret under an assumed name, and is taken in by the romantic lies the girl tells him about her forced marriage to the [fake] Maharajah.”
Lyrics

 

If you should happen to meet the Rajah,

You must be ready to greet the Rajah,

High King of Maha!

You are effecting a great shyness,

You are  respecting his Great Highness,

Real thing, He’s a Czar!

If in the presence of royalty,

Just according to Hoyle you’d be,

There’s only one thing to do,

Here you are!

REFRAIN

Salaaming the Rajah!

Striking a pose, upon your toes,

You don’t know how?

Here’s how it goes, you just bow low!

Salaaming the Rajah!

Swaying your arms, like swaying palms,

The way that you sway,

Displaying your charms, just so!

 

Make this ceremony with feeling;

Time for sanctimonious kneeling.

Salaaming the Rajah!

Make it profound, Here’s what you do;

Bow to the ground, Shout “Whoop de doo, Salaam!”