New York, New York

Frank Sinatra

Verse 1
Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it
New York, New York
I wanna wake up in a city that doesn’t sleep
And find I’m king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town blues, are melting away

Hook 1
I’ll make a brand new start of it in old New York
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you, New York, New York

Verse 2
New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
And find I’m a number one, top of the list
King of the hill, a number one
These little town blues, are melting away

Hook 2
And I’m gonna make a brand new start of it in old New York
And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere
It’s up to you, New York, New York

Vocabulary

Hook: a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to “catch the ear of the listener”.

Question: What’s the difference between a musical hook and a hook for a coat?

Vagabond: A vagabond is a nomad who roams place to place. As he compares to one, Sinatra is awed by the sight of New York, and is “in love” with the city.

Question: Name something else you may be awed by. Phrase it in a sentence.

Longing to: a prolonged unfulfilled desire or need to…

Question: Explain something you are longing to do.

Stray: move away aimlessly to the right course or place. Wondering is less intentional. Stray can also mean “street dog”.

Question: Explain the difference between wondering and straying.

City that doesn’t sleep: Frank Sinatra used a metaphor to characterize New York city because the city works 24 hours a day.

Question: Use a metaphor to explain something important to you.

Metaphor: a figure of speech representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.

Question: Explain something abstract with a figure of speech.

Figure of speech: a deviation from ordinary language, chosen to produce a rhetorical effect. A metaphor makes a comparison between two unlike things or ideas. Examples: Heart of stone. Time is money (time really isn’t money). The world is a stage (the world really isn’t a stage). She’s a night owl (she’s really not an own).

Question: Explain something using a figure of speech.

King of the hill: The most powerful, successful, or authoritative person in a group or organization. Based on a children’s game where “the king” stands on top of a hill and repels other players trying to take the king off the hill.

Question: Explain a children’s game.

Heap: a small pile or mound, like a “heap of clothes”. A hill is dirt. A heap is things.

Question: What’s the difference between a hill and a heap.

Little town: small places, usually in the United States, where people are friendly, honest, and polite, or to the people there. Small town is also sometimes used to suggest that someone has old-fashioned ideas.

Question: Are you from a little town, or a big town, somewhere else? Explain the details.

Blues: melancholic music of black American folk origin, the predecessor of the Jazz were ‘melted’ by Sinatra’s warm voice that captured the beauty of jazz.

Question: What music genres are your favorite?

Melting away: to gradually disappear, like “Her determination to take revenge slowly melted away.”

Question: Use “melting away” in a sentence.

Brand new: absolutely new

Question: What things do you like brand new, or used? Give examples.

Make it: to be successful. Given New York’s world-class cosmopolitan reputation, it tends to attract the best of the best so if you can “make it” in NYC, you’ll be successful anywhere.

Question: At what things would you like to “make it”?