Only You (Pearl and Rusty) - Lyrics

Lyrics

The Lyrics for "Only He" and "Only You" are by Richard Stilgoe.

The commonly known opening verse of "Only He" - "look at me, a woman, calm and in control/ No silly girl whose head's always turning" is in fact from the single release version of the song, and are obviously out of context when sung by Pearl, who is exactly a silly girl whose head is turned by each attractive male that passes her. The stage production used significantly different lyrics, more appropriate to the context: "known him for a lifetime, known him not at all/ Thought there was nothing special about him". "Only You" cuts this first verse, Pearl starting at the chorus "Only You/ have the power to move me"

The second version of "Only He" has lyrics re-worked from the original. The alterations are not credited to David Yazbek, who worked on re-vamping the show for the 2003 US tour. The lyrics are predominantly Richard Stilgoe's original work altered slightly, but include lyrics such as Rusty's singing "You are my Starlight" to Pearl. Earlier on, Rusty looked for 'the Starlight Express'. For romantic purposes of this number, he suggests that Pearl is 'his Starlight', 'Starlight' being a metaphor of Rusty's motivation. Obviously he cannot mean it literally, as the Starlight Express, heard onstage a few scenes previously, was definitely not Pearl! The most glaring contextual nonsensities in the show have appeared at this point in the plot, including Don Black's "Back then was when we touched the Starlight". Rusty and Pearl have a minimal relationship at the beginning of the show, they have no significant past other than a tentative agreement to race together. And while (in the London staging) Rusty did touch the Starlight Express, Pearl was clearly not with him.