-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
G Artists/Bands 
Guy Lombardo CDs in sales 
