This song was written for the 1951 musical film Royal Wedding, in which singing and dancing siblings Tom and Ellen Bowen (Fred Astaire and Jane Powell) unveil a vaudeville-like comic number for their act. The song hearkens back to the contentious comic numbers that Fred Astaire did with his own real...
(Chorus)
[TOM]
How could you believe me when I said "I love you" when you know I've been a liar all my life?
[ELLEN]
You've had that reputation since you were a youth
[TOM]
You must have been insane to think I'd tell you the truth
[ELLEN]
How could you believe me when you said we'd marry
[TOM]
When you know I'd rather hang than have a wife
I know I said I'd make you mine
[ELLEN]
Now wouldn't you know I would go for that old line?
[TOM]
How could you believe me when I said "I love you" when you know I've been a liar
[ELLEN]
You sure have been a liar
[TOM]
A double-crossing liar
[ELLEN]
A double-crossing liar
[TOM]
All my doggone cheatin' life
(Verse)
[ELLEN]
You said you would love me long
[TOM]
So what?
[ELLEN]
And never would do me wrong
[TOM]
Stop bending the suit
[ELLEN]
Faithful you'd always be
[TOM]
Me? Why, baby, you must be loony to trust a lower-than-low two-timer like me
[ELLEN]
You said I'd have everything
[TOM]
Get her!
[ELLEN]
A beautiful diamond ring
[TOM]
Ha ha ha!
[ELLEN]
A bungalow by the sea
[TOM]
A bungalow, yet! You're really naive to ever believe a full-of-baloney phony like me
[ELLEN]
Boy, I sure must have lost my head
[TOM]
You ain't lost nothin' you never had
(Chorus 2)
[ELLEN]
What about the time you went to Indiana?
[TOM]
I was lyin', I was down in Alabam'
[ELLEN]
You said you had some business to complete
[TOM]
What I was doin' I would be a cad to repeat
[ELLEN]
What about the evenings you was with your mother?
[TOM]
I was rompin' with another honey lamb
[ELLEN]
To think you swore our love was real
[TOM]
Baby, leave us not forget that I'm a heel
[ELLEN]
How could I believe you when you said you loved me
[TOM]
When you know I've been a liar
[ELLEN]
A good-for-nothing liar
[TOM]
All my good-for-nothing life
(Spoken interlude)
[ELLEN]
This is the last time I'll ever go to a party with you
[TOM]
Will you put that in writing?
[ELLEN]
Oh, you're always making cracks! Making cracks!
[TOM]
Like what?
[ELLEN]
You're always humiliating me. Humiliating me! Didn't your mother never teach you no manners?
[TOM]
I never had a mother. We was too poor
[ELLEN]
Hey, what's the matter with you lately? You used to tell me you loved me. You used to treat me like a high-class dame. Well, usedn't you to?
[TOM]
So I used
[ELLEN]
So now you admit it
[TOM]
I ain't admittin' nothing
[ELLEN]
I'll give you one more chance. Do you love me, or don't you?
[TOM]
No, I don't
[ELLEN]
Quit stalling! I want a direct answer!
(Outro)
[ELLEN]
You know you've been a liar
[TOM]
I know I've been a liar
[ELLEN]
A double-crossing liar
{TOM]
A double-crossing liar
[ELLEN]
All your double-crossing life
How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life? was written by Alan Jay Lerner & Burton Lane.
Burton Lane released How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life? on Thu Mar 08 1951.