Ella was a dancing girl who started getting fat
Ev'ry day brought two more pounds to Ella
Till one day she found she'd lost her job because of that,
Then, to make it worse, she lost her "fella."
And so she sailed to Egypt to forget
But she made such a hit that's she's there yet:
CHORUS:
If you hear of a gal who can shake and quake
Till it makes you think of a nervous snake,
They're speakin' of EGYPTIAN ELLA
She weighs two-twenty but they don't care,
They like 'em plenty that way out there,
She has the love of ev'ry fella
She does a dance and when she starts By the river Nile,
The boys all take their old sweethearts And throw them to the crocodiles,
And ev'ry sheik in the audience jumps up and yells that she's immense,
How they love EGYPTIAN ELLA.
All the other dancers from the desert to the Nile,
One by one admit that they are jealous
For altho' they dance each night and wear their sweetest smile
Ella's tent the one that draws the fellas
And yet her dance is something they can't steal
For nothing else could do it but an eel:
CHORUS:
When the first sweet notes of the music sound
The boys all gather from miles around
Just to see EGYPTIAN ELLA;
And folks all know when those caravans
Start pouring in from the desert sands
That it must be EGYPTIAN ELLA;
Then Mister Sphinx sits up and blinks,
There's so much to see,
She squirms and shakes so the worms and snakes
All bite themselves from jealousy,
She's a great big gal in a great big land
and the boys all give her a great big hand,
How they love EGYPTIAN ELLA.
LAST CHORUS:
The boys hang around but she plainly states
She doesn't care a fig about dates,
And they can't make EGYPTIAN ELLA
A sheik tried to kidnap her once I'm told
But she shook so much that he lost his hold,
He couldn't take EGYPTIAN ELLA.
So the Pasha wrote her a royal note With his royal fist,
It said because of the dance she does,
She's on his royal waiting list,
And that's how fame of a diff'rent sort
has come at last from an indoor sport
To our own EGYPTIAN ELLA.