It's Only a Paper Moon

"It's Only a Paper Moon" is a popular song published in 1933 with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg and Billy Rose.

[2] The song was written for an unsuccessful 1932 Broadway play called The Great Magoo that was set in Coney Island.

Paul Whiteman recorded a hit version later that year, released on the Victor label in October 1933 featuring Bunny Berigan on trumpet and Peggy Healy on vocals.

A version released a month before Whiteman's was by Henry King and His Pierre Hotel Orchestra on the Vocalion label.

Blanche DuBois is heard singing the song when in the bathroom in Scene Seven of Tennessee Williams's play A Streetcar Named Desire.