As in many of Berlin's songs, music, rather than being the vehicle for emotional expression, is both the source and the outcome of the emotion. Berlin's later songs, like most popular tunes of the twenties and on, have verses that are shriveled into mere introductions and choruses that are the heart of the composition. Here the story had to be told within the strict shape of the main melody, and so every note counted. The final phrase, instead of repeating the first, turns it upside down and backward, so that one loneliness balances out the other. The song swings and sizzles because it is a series of expanding gasps of pleasure.
Music is a prophylactic for Berlin.
All his songs seem a little safer than we want them to be. Berlin takes the laurel crown from Stephen Foster, and we realize that Berlin is Alexander, the leader of the band. All rights reserved.