Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life

Words & Music by Rida Johnson Young & Victor Herber
Recorded by Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald, 1935
From "Naughty Marietta"


E7/6  E7    A9   A       AM7         F#m   A    D9
 Ah! sweet mys - te - ry of life, at last I've found thee; 

E7  E6      E     Esus4     E9   D9    A
Ah! At last I know the se - cret of it all; 

E7/6  E7  A9     A          AM7               F#m          E               
 All the long - ing, seek - ing, stri - ving, wait - ing, yearn - ing, 

   Edim      B7        Edim     B7        Bm7-5        E7
The i - dle hopes, the joys and burn - ing tears that fall! 

E7/6  E7   A9        A        AM7      F#m      D9
 For 'tis love, and love a - lone, the world is seek - ing; 

E7  E6     E      Esus4 E   E9     E   D9          A
And it's love, and love a - lone, I've wait - ted for; 

A7       F#       Gdim     F#7      Edim      D            B7
And my heart has heard the ans - wer to it's call - ing -- 

   Dm6 Fdim  A        F#m       E7  E7/6   A 
For it  is  love that rules for ev - er - more! 


Suggested by frequent visitor and contributor Bob A. (who probably would have preferred my using Mario Lanza's version.) But what the heck -- its presence here is a bit of an anomaly anyway. Hardly a "pop standard" (in fact, I'm still looking for evidence that it ever charted) it is nevertheless so well-known that it verges on becoming a caricature of itself.

The lyrics for this song, as I believe originally written, are not the ones that Eddy & MacDonald sing in their classic duet. There are minor changes and re-arrangements throughout, but in particular, the last two lines as sung are clearly different from the original. I'm using their duet version because I suspect it rings more clearly in the memory of those who remember it at all.



 
The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.