-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 its 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 its 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