For A Buck And A Quarter A Day

Written for: Sons O' Guns (1936)
Performer: Joan Blondell & Joe E. Brown
Lyric: Al Dubin
Music: Harry Warren
Year: 1936
Original publisher: M. Witmark & Sons

Chorus 1:

(Joan Blondell:) You came over to France
Just to fight and romance
(Joe E. Brown:) For a buck and a quarter a day.
(Blondell:) You're repaying zee debt
Zat you owe Lafayette
(Brown:) At a buck and a quarter a day.
(Blondell:) You have lived in a trench,
You have struggled with French;
(Brown:) But I can't seem to parley Francay;
(Blondell:) Yet, you do very well
Wiz zee mademoiselle
(Brown:) On a buck and a quarter a day.

Patter:

(Brown:) Through the mud and the muck and the filth and the slime,
There's a million of us who are just marking time,
As we're marching by night and we're marching by day,
There are millions of feet
Keeping time to the beat 
Of a patter that seems to say,
Of a patter that seems to say:
We're marching away, we're marching away,
We're marching and marching and marching away,
For a buck and a quarter a day-yay-yay-yay;

Chorus 2:

(Blondell:) You have slept in zee mud,
(Brown:) I peeled many a spud
For a buck and a quarter a day.
(Blondell:) When you've conquered zee foe,
You'll be my gigolo,
(Brown:) At a buck and a quarter a day.
(Blondell:) You have offered to France
Both your body and soul,
(Brown:) And my heart to the old U. S. A.
(Blondell:) But the rest, mon cheri,
Shall belong joost to me,
(Brown:) That's a buck and a quarter a day,
(Both:) When we get it, a buck and a quarter a day.

Tag (from movie):

(Brown:) If the world only knew
What we soldiers go through
For a buck and a quarter a day.