- Artist: Johnny Mercer as sung on
"Remember the 40's-Music Of the War Years Vol. IV, 1941-45" CEMA Special
Markets (Capitol-EMI) CDL-57367 - peak Billboard position # 1 in 1945 -
competing versions charted by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters
(#2), Artie Shaw (#5), and Kay Kyser (#12) - Words and Music by Harold
Arlen and Johnny Mercer
Gather
'round me, everybody Gather 'round me while I'm preachin' Feel a sermon
comin' on me The topic will be sin and that's what I'm ag'in' If you
wanna hear my story The settle back and just sit tight While I start
reviewin' The attitude of doin' right
You've
got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative And latch on to the
affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between
You've got to spread joy
up to the maximum Bring gloom down to the minimum Have faith or
pandemonium's Liable to walk upon the scene
To illustrate my last
remark Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark What did they do just when
everything looked so dark?
(Man, they said "We'd better accentuate the
positive") ("Eliminate the negative") ("And latch on to the
affirmative") Don't mess with Mister In-Between (No!) Don't mess with
Mister In-Between
(Ya got to spread joy up to the maximum) (Bring gloom down to the minimum) (Have faith or pandemonium's) (Liable to walk
upon the scene)
You got to ac (yes, yes) -cent-tchu-ate the
positive Eliminate (yes, yes) the negative And latch (yes, yes) on to the
affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between No, don't mess with Mister
In-Between
Transcribed by Robin Hood
These lyrics were
transcribed from the specific recording mentioned above and do not
necessarily correspond with lyrics from other recordings, sheet music,
songbooks or lyrics printed on album jackets.