Richard Rodgers
The Surrey with the Fringe on Top
[CURLY]
When I take you out tonight with me
Honey, here's the way it's gonna be
You will set behind a team of snow-white horses
In the slickest gig you'll ever see

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry
When I take you out in the surrey
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top
Watch that fringe an' see how it flutters
When I drive them high-steppin' strutters
Nosy pokes'll peek through their shutters and their eyes will pop
The wheels are yellow, the upholstery's brown
The dashboard's genuine leather
With isinglass curtains you can roll right down
In case there's a change in the weather
Two bright sidelights winkin' and blinkin'
Ain't no finer rig I'm a thinkin'
You can keep yer rig if yer thinkin' that I'd care to swap
Fer that shiny little surrey with the fringe on the top

[AUNT ELLER]
Would you say the fringe was made of silk?

[CURLY]
Oh, wouldn't have no other kind but silk!
[LAUREY]
Has it really got a team of snow-white horses?

[CURLY]
One's like snow, the other's more like milk

All the world'll fly in a flurry
When I take you out in the surrey
When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top

When we hit that road, hell-for-leather, hyah
Cats and dogs will dance in the heather
Birds and frogs'll sing all together and the toads will hop
The wind'll whistle as we rattle along
The cows'll moo in the clover
The river will ripple out a whispered song
And whisper it over and over
Don't you wish you'd go on forever?
Don't you wish you'd go on forever?
Don't you wish you'd go on forever?
And it'd never stop?
In that shiny little surrey
With the fringe on the top

[AUNT ELLER, spoken]
You'd sure feel like a queen setting up in that carriage
[CURLY, spoken]
Only she talked so mean to me a while back, Aunt Eller, I'm of good mind not to take her

[LAUREY, spoken]
Ain't said I was goin'

[CURLY, spoken]
I ain't asked ya

[LAUREY, spoken]
Where'd you get such a rig at?
*Laurey laughs*
[?]

[CURLY, spoken]
Just so you'd know about it

[LAUREY, spoken]
Oh, oh, oh, oh. Spent all his money hiring a rig and now he ain't got nobody to ride with

[CURLY, spoken]
I had to. And I did not hire it. Look, I made the whole thing up out of my head

[LAUREY, spoken]
What? Made it up?
[CURLY, spoken]
Dashboard and all

[LAUREY, spoken]
Oh, get off of the place you. Aunt Eller make him get himself outta here. Telling lies

[CURLY, spoken]
Hey, hey, hey look out now. Making a few [?] Don't you wish there was such a rig though? Hmm? Then you could go to that play party and do a little hoedown 'til the mornin' if [?] and then when you was all wore out, I'd lift you up out of that surrey, jump up alongside of you and we'd point the horses home. I can just picture the whole thing

(sung)
I can see the stars gittin' blurry
When we ride back home in the surrey
Ridin' slowly home in the surrey with the fringe on top
I can feel the day gettin' older
Feel a sleepy head near my shoulder
Noddin', droopin', close to my shoulder
'Til it falls—kerplop
The sun is swimmin' on the rim of the hill
The moon is takin' a header
And jist as I'm thinkin' all the earth is still
A lark'll wake up in the meader

Hush hush, you bird, my baby's a sleepin'
Maybe got a dream worth a keepin'
Whoa, you team, an' jist keep a creepin'
At a slow clip clop
Don't you hurry little surrey
With the fringe on the top