Belmont Avenue

It's 3 am in The Bronx, New York
I'm on the corner of 187th and Belmont Avenue
This was my neighborhood
I can still hear a million voices in my head
Hear a million stories

This is a Bronx tale
And it's my story
The world I lived in
The people I knew
It's just a Bronx tale
And like they all do
It starts right here on Belmont Avenue

I can hear the church bells and smell the freshly baked bread
(Ah-ooh)
See the storefront awnings
The neon green, white, and red
(Ah-ooh)
Cannolis on tray after tray
Salamis strung up on display
And Italians are all that you see!

Yeah, yeah
And sidewalk's swinging
Yeah, yeah
And the girls are singing
Shoop-shoop

As they pass my stoop
And the pushcart peddlers
They hawk their wares door-to-door

(Pesce fresca! Pesce fresca!)

While the jukebox jockeys dance in the candy store
(Ba-dah-dah, ba-dah-dah-dah-dah)
(Ba-dah-dah, ba-dah-dah-dah-dah)
Grandma's calling across

(Ciao, Bambini!)

While stirring the Sunday sauce

(Ciao, Nonna!)

And in the middle lies me

Woah, woah
And the streets start sighing
Woah, woah
And the girls strut by in a group
Come on, Come on

Try to ride pass my stoop

Stickball, kick the can
Orchard beach in the sand
Find a girl to cop a feel
Brylcreem, wet dream
Bring her home and close the deal
(No-no-no, no-no-no, no-no-no!)
Next year's Frankie Valli's
Cruisin' in the allies
Getting those falsettos to soar
While the Carmelie Sisters
Scream at the transistors
Every time the bombers score!

Hangin with the crew! (On the stoop, on the stoop)
On Belmont Avenue! (On the stoop, on the stoop)
Gotta love the view! (On the stoop, on the stoop)
Belmont Avenue!

And those sultry summer nights
Playin' the corner with rock
The romance, the laughs, the fights
A universe on one little block!

Day-oh!
Everywhere
Everywhere I go!

Belmont Avenue! (Yeah, yeah, boys are swingin')
Hangin' with my crew! (Yeah, yeah, the girls are goin')
Gotta love the view (Shoop-shoop-shoop)
Belmont Avenue!

Woah
Woah
Woah

And then there was Sonny
He was the number one man in the neighborhood
All day and all night he'd be right here on the corner
He would stand here
Nodding his head to all the old ladies going by with their shopping
And they treated him like a god
And in my neighborhood, he was a god
I couldn't take my eyes off of him
But he never ever looked at me, never
Until one day
I was nine years old

This is a Bronx tale
And it's my story
The one that shattered the world that I knew
Here's how it happened
And all of it's true
It starts right here on Belmont Avenue