Sarah Vaughan Hal Mooney & His Studio Orchestra - Poor Butterfly (Mercury Records 1956)

"Poor Butterfly" is a popular song. It was inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly and contains a brief musical quote from the act 2 duet Tutti i fior in the verse. The music was written by Raymond Hubbell, the lyrics by John Golden. The song was published in 1916. It was introduced in the Broadway show The Big Show, which opened in August 1916, and was sung in the show by Sophie Bernard. The song became a pop standard, recorded by many artists. Sarah's accompanied by Hal Mooney and His Studio Orchestra. Recorded October 31, 1956, New York. (Mercury Records) Here's a story told of a little Japanese Sitting demurely 'neath the cherry blossom trees Miss Butterfly's her name, a sweet little innocent child was she 'Till a fine young American from the sea To her garden came They met 'neath the cherry blossoms everyday And he taught her how to love the American way To love with her soul, 'twas easy to learn Then he sailed away with a promise to return Poor Butterfly 'Neath the blossoms waiting Poor butterfly For she loved him so The moments pass into hours The hours pass into years And as she smiles through her tears She murmurs low The moon and I know that he'll be faithful I'm sure he'll come to me by and by But if he won't come back, then I'll never sigh or cry I just must die, poor Butterfly