Ooh, Mr. Todd
I'm so happy
I could eat you up, I really could
You know what I'd like to do, Mr. Todd?
What I dream
If the business stays as good?
Where I'd really like to go
In a year or so?
Don't you want to know?
Of course!
Do you really want to know?
Yes, yes, I do, I do

By the sea, Mr. Todd, that's the life I covet
By the sea, Mr. Todd, oh, I know you'd love it
You and me, Mr. T, we could be alone
In a house what we'd almost own
Down by the sea
Anything you say
Wouldn't that be smashing?

With the sea at our gate
We'll have kippered herring
Wot have swum to us straight
From the Straits of Bering
Every night in the kip
When we're through our kippers
I'll be there slippin' off your slippers

By the sea
With the fishies splashing
By the sea
Wouldn't that be smashing?
Down by the sea
Anything you say, anything you say

I can see us waking
The breakers breaking
The seagulls squawking
Hoo! Hoo!
I'll do me baking
Then I go walking
With you-hoo
Yoo-hoo

I'll warm me bones
On the esplanade
Have tea and scones
With me gay young blade
Then I'll knit a sweater
While you write a letter
Unless we've got better
To do-hoo
Anything you say

Think how snug it'll be underneath our flannel
When it's just you and me and the English Channel
In our cozy retreat kept all neat and tidy
We'll have chums over every Friday

By the sea (anything you say)
Don't you love the weather?
By the sea
We'll grow old together
By the seaside, woo-hoo
By the beautiful sea

Ooh, I can see us now in our bathing dresses
Oh! You in a nice rich navy
And me in stripes, perhaps? Hm

It'll be so quiet
That who'll come by it
Except a seagull, hoo, hoo
We shouldn't try it
Though 'til it's legal for two
But a seaside wedding could be devised
Me rumpled bedding legitimized
Me eyelids'll flutter
I'll turn into butter
The moment I mutter, "I do"

By the sea, in our nest
We could share our kippers
With the odd paying guest
From the weekend trippers
Have a nice sunny suite
For the guest to rest in
Now and then, you could do the guest in

By the sea
Married nice and proper
By the sea
Bring along your chopper
To the seaside, whoa-oh
By the beautiful sea


Lyrics submitted by Kiyyt

By The Sea [Movie Version] Lyrics as written by Stephen Sondheim

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

By the Sea song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

9 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +1
    General Comment

    Imahollowplay, thank you for posting the soundtrack version.

    devinelynewon February 14, 2008   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines: "Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet" So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other: "I had all and then most of you" Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart "Some and now none of you" Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship. This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Album art
Holiday
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday". I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Album art
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."