Lyrics:

From Bye Bye Birdie soundtrack

His going in the army is the best thing he could do. Now you're free to start to do, what you want to do.
Albert, Albert, Albert!
I remember how you told me I should trust you for a year. It would just be
for a year. But it's 8 years, Albert. 8 long years Albert.
It was only a sideline that's what you said. You just needed some money
that's what you said. You were going to college and get ahead. Instead of
being a music business bum. You were going to NYU and become....An English
teacher!
(spoken lines - not part of the song)
An English teacher, an English teacher. If only you'd been an English
teacher. We'd have a little apartment in Queens. you'd get a summer vacation,
and we would know what life means. A man who's got his Masters is really
someone. How proud I'd be if you had become one. It could have been such a
wonderful life, I could have been Mrs. Peterson, Mrs. Albert Peterson. Mrs.
Phi-Beta-Cappa Peterson, the English teacher's wife.