Jerry Herman — Put on Your Sunday Clothes from Hello Dolly

[JERRY HERMAN, spoken] David Merrick came to see a performance of Milk and Honey and summoned me to his office. He told me he was working on a musical version of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker, the lovely American play about Dolly Levi, that he was interested in me to do the score, but that he wasn't sure if I was American enough Well, I had to prove to Mr. Merrick that I was Abraham Lincoln and Kate Smith rolled up into one. So I locked myself in my little apartment, and between Friday night and Monday morning, I wrote four songs that fit very neatly into the Mike Stewart script he had handed me. You wouldn't have believed the scene in Mr. Merrick's office on Monday, even if you had seen it in a Judy/Mickey movie. Because, when I finished the fourth song, Mr. Merrick stood up behind his desk and bellowed, "Kid! The show is yours!" [LEE ROY REAMS] Out there There's a world outside of Yonkers Way out there beyond this hick town, Barnaby There's a slick town, Barnaby Out there Full of shine and full of sparkle Close your eyes and see it glisten, Barnaby Listen, Barnaby Put on your Sunday clothes, there's lots of world out there Get out the brilliantine and dime cigars We're gonna find adventure in the evening air Girls in white In a perfumed night Where the lights are bright as the stars! Put on your Sunday clothes, we're gonna ride through town In one of those new horse-drawn open cars We'll see the shows At Delmonico's And we'll close the town in a whirl But we won't come home until we've kissed a girl!