Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems  

Oh, Doctor

Notes: words and music by Malvina Reynolds; copyright 1959 Schroder Music Company, renewed 1987. This song was first performed by the folk act Bud and Travis (Bud Dashiell and Travis Edmonson) at San Francisco's basement night club the Purple Onion, during a American Medical Association convention in that city. Malvina writes in the Notes to her songbook Little Boxes and Other Handmade Songs, "If some doctors didn't specialize in patients who have nothing in the world to do but be sick, the sick ones might get some attention. This is known as socialized medicine."

Oh, I wish I was a doctor,
Not a barroom troubador,
I wish I had an office
On the forty-second floor,
Where ladies in the anteroom,
So stylish and so pert,
All wait their turn
To tell me where they hurt.
Oh, Doctor, hold my hand.

Oh, Doctor, I ache all over.
Oh, Doctor, you're so nice
And you give such good advice,
I don't even mind the price
'Cause you're so grand.
Oh, Doctor, hold my hand.

Oh, Doctor, you're so sweet,
With you on call a sickness is a treat.
It could be psychosomatic,
Caused by birdies in my attic,
Still you make it so dramatic, I expand.
Oh, Doctor, hold my hand.

Oh, Doctor, I'm off my feed,
I can hardly eat but three poor meals a day.
I'd get back my appetite
If you'd feed me day and night,
Then I might endure a bite of something bland.
Oh, Doctor, hold my hand.

Oh, Doctor, I'm not well,
Oh, Doctor, I've got a fever,
It could be a mild infection
That requires an injection--
Streptomycin's what I mean, you understand.
Oh, Doctor, hold my hand.

Oh, Doctor, your pills are just too cute.
I really don't know what I'd do without them.
Some are scented with vanilla,
I just keep them on my pilla,
Or I wear them for a necklace on a band.
Oh, Doctor, hold my hand.

Oh, Doctor, write me a prescription,
A little billet-doux from you to me.
Call me back another day,
I get well when I'm away;
It's so boring being healthy, strong and tanned.
Oh, Doctor, hold my hand.

Oh, Doctor, I'm just low.
Oh, Doctor, I need attention.
If you think I need diversion,
I could take a nice excursion
Where the AMA convention's being planned,
Cause I love to have a doctor hold my hand.

Malvina Reynolds songbook(s) in which the music to this song appears:
---- Little Boxes and Other Handmade Songs

Malvina Reynolds recording(s) on which this song is performed:
---- Another County Heard From