Cover art for Ah! Leah! by Donnie Iris

Ah! Leah!

Producer

Jul. 15, 19801 viewer7.3K views

Ah! Leah! Lyrics

Leah
It's been a long, long time
You're such a sight
You're looking better than a body has a right to
Don't you know we're playing with the fire
But we can stop this burning desire
Leah

Ah! Leah!
Here we go again
Ah! Leah!
Is it ever gonna end?
Ah! Leah!
Here we go again
Ah! Leah!

I see your lips
And I wonder who's been kissing them
I never knew how badly I was missing them
We both know we're never going to make it
But when we touch
We never have to fake it
Leah

Ah! Leah!
Here we go again
Ah! Leah!
Is it ever gonna end?
Ah! Leah!
Here we go again
Ah! Leah!
We ain't learned our lesson yet
Baby, it's no good
We're just asking for trouble
I can touch you
But I don't know how to love you

It ain't no use
We're headed for disaster
Our minds said no
But our hearts were talking faster
Leah

Ah! Leah!
Here we go again
Ah! Leah!
Here we go again
Ah! Leah!
Leah, Leah, Leah
Ah! Leah!
Here we go again

Ah! Leah!
Leah
We're never, ever, ever gonna make it, yeah
Ah! Leah!
Here we go again
Ah! Leah!
We're never gonna make it
Ah! Leah!

How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

About

This song bio is unreviewed
Genius Annotation

Originally, “Ah! Leah!” was an anti-war song. Its title was a phonetic chant, not a woman’s name. But Iris noticed that it also sounded like the name of a girl he’d liked when in The Jaggerz, years earlier. As the song was developed, its meaning went from anti-war to simply being a long of intense yearning for a girl.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Donnie Iris say about "Ah! Leah!"?
Genius Answer

Mark and I wrote that together in my basement, around the piano, and originally Mark had the idea of an anti-war song…It started out just as a chant – it’s not a chick’s name, it’s not a certain person or individual, in particular. We wanted to have a hook, or a chorus, to the tune, that sounded almost like a Gregorian chant, and somehow Mark came up with the ‘Ah, Leah’ just like a chant.

I said, ‘You know what, Mark, that’s a chick’s name,’ so that’s how we named it ‘Ah, Leah.’ It just so happens that there was a girl by the name of Leah who had dated one of the guys in The Jaggerz years ago, and I always loved that name. She was a very pretty girl, and I always loved her name.

So instead of a war tune, which we messed around with and messed around with and didn’t have anything in there that we liked to make it an anti-war song, it just turned out as being a love song. It was a total change in direction, and that happened with several of our songs. We were coming up with stuff and, you know, sometimes you just do something and in the end you hate it. That’s what happened.

We hated that… the way it was coming out as an anti-war song, and when we finally figured it was a nice way to do a love song, then we were happy with it.

Credits
Producer
Release Date
July 15, 1980
Songs That Sample Ah! Leah!
View Ah! Leah! samples
Tags
Comments