Saigon's a strange city, on the river Mekong shore
A place that can overnight make a rich man poor
A city where it's starving peace, a Paris of the East

A young soldier far from home will sit down for a drink
And a black haired girl with almond eyes will help him not to think
She'll play five hundred rummy for a drink or for love
and you'll swear that she's an angel that's come from up above

Yes, she's so lovely sitting there you know she is the one
Eating a bowl of Chinese soup at a cafe in Cho-Lun
She'll smile at you with ruby lips that look so very sweet
then take you for a little stroll down good ol' Tudo street

Then for a while life is good, the night as sweet as honey
'Til the morning with blood-shot eyes, you find you're out of money
So at Ton Son Nuht you hop a plane and go back to the war
You've forgotten what it was you really came here for.

Though you feel sick you're money is at an end
As you look down on Old Saigon and think
I'll be back again I'll be back again...
I'll be back again