(wm) Robert Wright and George Forrest. Adapted from Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. (I) Musical: Kismet by Doretta Morrow and Richard Kiley. (P) The Four Aces. No. 1 Chart Record. (CR) Tony Bennett.
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 the 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