The Third Man Theme

-Instrumental version by Anton Karas hit # 1 for 11 weeks in 1950
-Instrumental version by Guy Lombardo ALSO hit # 1 for 11 weeks in 1950
-four other versions also charted that year-Freddy Martin (#17), Hugo
-Winterhalter (#21), Victor Young (#22), and Owen Bradley (#23)
-Title song from the Orson Welles film co-starring Joseph Cotton
- Words by Walter Lord, Music by Anton Karas


When a zither starts to play
You'll remember yesterday
In it's haunting strain
Vienna lives again
Free and bright and gay
In your mind a sudden gleam
Of a half forgotten dream
Seems to glimmer when you hear The Third Man Theme

Once again there comes to mind
Someone that you left behind
Love that somehow didn't last
In that happy city of the past
Does she still recall the dream
That rapture so supreme
When first she heard the haunting Third Man Theme?

Carnivals and carousels and ferris wheels and parasols
The Danube nights, the dancing lights again will shine
The zither's sweet refrain
Keeps swirling in your brain
Like new May wine
Strauss waltzes, candle-glow
And the laughter of long ago
Fill the magic chords and make it seem like today

You never knew that you could be
Enchanted by a melody
The years will never drive it out
You don't know why
It's something you can't live without
You hear it in the twilight hush
And in the morning traffic rush
A song that's always new
In your heart a part of you
Oh, shines so brightly when you hear The Third Man Theme

When a zither starts to play
You'll remember yesterday
In it's haunting strain
Vienna lives again
Free and bright and gay
In your mind a sudden gleam
Of a well remembered dream
Seems to glimmer when you hear The Third Man Theme

Once again there comes to mind
Someone that you left behind
Love that somehow didn't last
In that happy city of the past
Does she still recall the dream
That rapture so supreme
When first she heard the haunting Third Man Theme?

Carnivals and carousels and ferris wheels and parasols
The Danube nights, the dancing lights again will shine
The zither's sweet refrain
Keeps swirling in your brain
Like new May wine
Strauss waltzes, candle-glow
And the laughter of long ago
Fill the magic chords and make it seem like today

You never knew that you could be
Enchanted by a melody
The years will never drive it out
You don't know why
It's something you can't live without
You hear it in the twilight hush
And in the morning traffic rush
A song that's always new
In your heart a part of you
Oh, shines so brightly when you hear The Third Man Theme


Chart info by Robin Hood