Jeff Barry
Home | Jeff Barry's Career Chronology | Photo Gallery | The Hits | Disc&Dat Interview | The Music of Jeff Barry | Music Videos | The Jeff Barry Song Database | The Steed Singles | Jeff Barry Album List | The Jeff Barry Story, Part I | The Jeff Barry Story, Part II | Open Letter to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | Walkin' in the Sun | The Many Colors of Jeff Barry | The Jeff Barry Lyrics Pages | Ray Peterson | Knight Life | Baby Songs | Chapel of Love | Music Marketplace | Laura Speaks | Links
I Left My Heart in the Balcony

This early composition, a hit single in 1962 for diminutive Linda Scott, is the direct forerunner of Jeff Barry-penned country hits like "He's Not You," "Out Of Hand" and "Lie To You For Your Love."   It's very much in the style of brokenhearted ballads girl singers like Loretta Lynn were singing on Country radio around that time.  However, "Balcony" appealed to a broader audience and was played on Pop stations instead.   Warbling in her irresistible Tweety Bird voice, little Linda relates the sorrowful tale of her erstwhile boyfriend.  He's been scooped up by a talent agent and whisked off to Hollywood stardom ... right into the arms of a sexy screen starlet.   Consequently, when Linda goes to the local movie house to see her ex-beau's films, she leaves her heart in the balcony and her teardrops on the floor.   The premise may sound corny in retrospect, but it's a bet that the hundreds of teenage girls who bought Linda's record back in the day felt every bit of her pain.  Teenage girls are very sensitive, you know.  As Connie Francis once observed, they like to cry.   Still, you can't help but stifle a snicker when you imagine Linda Scott in her five-inch-tall beehive hairdo, sitting in a movie theatre and sobbing into a hankie over some pompadoured pretty boy.   It's just too tragic!

I Left My Heart In The Balcony
words and music by Jeff Barry and Artie Resnick
 
 
They said he was a talent scout with a big, long fancy car
He came through town, took my baby away
Said he'd make him a star
He took him off to Hollywood

And not once did he write
I saw his name on a marquee sign
I went to see his picture last night
 
And I left my heart in the balcony, last row, third seat
I couldn't take it anymore
So I left my heart in the balcony
And my teardrops on the floor
 
On a wide, white screen in Cinemascope and Technicolor, too
Some good-lookin' girl was kissin' his lips
The lips that I once knew

And I left my heart in the balcony, last row, third seat
I couldn't take it anymore
So I left my heart in the balcony
And my teardrops on the floor
 
Well, he's a star now, and he's gone for good
Livin' in a mansion in Hollywood
That movie queen, she stole my guy
When I pass the theatre, I have to cry
 
And I left my heart in the balcony, last row, third seat
I couldn't take it anymore
So I left my heart in the balcony
And my teardrops on the floor
 
 
 
 
 
 
TM Music - BMI

Return to the Lyrics Page

******************