Ultimate Performance, The lyrics

(words music by Tony Joe White)
Some of you all never been down South too much...
I' gonna tell you a little story, so you'll understand where I'm talking about
Down there we have a plant that grows out in the woods and the fields,
and it looks something like a turnip green.
Everybody calls it Polk salad. Now that's Polk salad.
Used to know a girl that lived down there and

Back porch preacher preaching at me
Acting like he wrote the golden rules
Shaking his fist and speeching at me
Shouting from his soap box like a fool
Come Sunday morning he's lying in bed
With his eye all red, with the wine in his head
Wishing he was dead when he oughta be
Heading for Sunday school
Clean up your own backyard
Oh don't you hand me none of your lines
Clean up your own backyard

(words music by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb)
Smile an everlasting smile
A smile can bring you near to me
Don't ever let me find you gone
'Cause that could bring a tear to me

This words have lost their glory,
Let's start a brand new story, now my love
Right now there'll be no other time
And I can show you all my love

Talk in everlasting words
And dedicate them all to me

(words music by Don Gibson)
I can't stop loving you
So I've made up my mind
To live in memory
Of such an old lonesome time

I can't stop wanting you
It's useless to say
So I'll just live my life
In dreams of yesterday.

Those happy hours
That we once knew
Though long ago,
They still make me blue

They say that time
Heals a broken heart
But time has stood still
Since we've been apart

Lord Almighty,
I feel my temperature rising
Higher and higher
It's burning through to my soul

Girl girl girl girl
Your gonna set me on fire
My brain is flaming
I don't know which way to go

Cuz Your kisses lift me higher
Like the sweet song of a choir
You light my morning sky
With burning love

Ooh, ooh, ooh,
I feel my temperature rising
Help me, I'm flaming
I must be a hundred and nine

(words music Jerry Leiber - Mike Stoller)
Treat me like a fool,
Treat me mean and cruel,
But love me.

Wring my faithful heart,
Tear it all apart,
But love me.

If you ever go,
Darling, I'll be oh so lonely
I'll be sad and blue,
Crying over you, dear only.

I would beg and steal
Just to feel your heart
Beatin' close to mine

Well, if you ever go,
Darling, I'll be oh so lonely

I play an old piano from nine till a half past one
Tryin' to make a livin' watchin' everybody have fun
Well, I don't miss much that ever happens on a dance hall floor
Mercy, look what just walked through that door

Well, hello T-R-0-U-B-L-E
What in the world you're doin' A-L-O-N-E?
Say, good L-double O-K-I-N-G
I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E

I was a little bitty baby when my papa hit the skids

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest, to follow that star
No matter how hopeless,
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause

(words music by Scott Davis)
As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto
And his mama cries
'cause if there's one thing that she don't need
it's another hungry mouth to feed
In the ghetto

People, don't you understand
the child needs a helping hand
or he'll grow to be an angry young man some day
Take a look at you and me,

Born in the heat of the desert
My mother died giving me life
Deprived of the love of a father
Blamed for the loss of his wife
You know Lord I've been in a prison
For something that I never done
It's been one hill after another
I've climbed them all one by one

But this time, Lord you gave me a mountain
A mountain you know I may never climb
It isn't just a hill any longer

Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old things they are not forgotten
Look away, look away, look away Dixieland
Oh I wish I was in Dixie, away, away
In Dixieland I take my stand to live and die in Dixie
Cause Dixieland, that's where I was born
Early Lord one frosty morning
Look away, look away, look away Dixieland

Glory, glory hallelujah
Glory, glory hallelujah

Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
Stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Good
Who never learned to read or write at all
But he could play the guitar just like ringing a bell

Go, go, go Johnny go, go, go Johnny, go go
Go Johnny go, go, go Johnny go go
Johnny B. Good

Well I've never been to Spain
But I kind of like the music
Say the ladies are insane there
And they sure know how to use it
They don't abuse it
Never gonna loose it
I can't refuse it

Well, I've never been to England
But I kind of like the Beatles
So I headed for Las Vegas
Only made it out to Lido's
Can you feel it
Must be weary
Oh feels so good... oh feel so good

I said, 'Take it easy, baby
I worked all day and my feet feel just like lead
You got my shirt tails
Flyin' all over the place
And the sweat poppin' out of my head'
She said, 'Hey, Bossa nova, baby
Keep on a workin' child
This ain't no time to quit'
She said, 'Go, Bossa nova, baby
Keep on dancin'
I'm about to have myself a fit'
Bossa nova, Bossa nova

I said, 'Hey little mama,
Let's sit down

(Words music: Roy Turk / Lou Handman)

Are you lonesome tonight,
do you miss me tonight?
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
Does your memory stray to a brighter sunny day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart?
Do the chairs in your parlor seem empty and bare?
Do you gaze at your doorstep and picture me there?
Is your heart filled with pain, shall I come back again?

(arr. by Elvis Presley)
I said see, see, see rider
Oh, see what you have done
I said see, see, see rider
Oh, see what you have done
Oh girl, you made me love you
Now, now, now your lovin' man has gone

hear what I say

Well, I'm going away, baby
And I won't be back to fall
Well, I'm going away baby
And I won't be back to fall
And if I find me a good girl
I won't, I won't be back at all