Songwriter: Rupert Holmes
Producer: Jim Boyer Rupert Holmes
You're browsing through a secondhand bookstore
And you see her in nonfiction V through Y
She looks up from World War II
And then you catch her catching you catching her eye
And you quickly turn away your wishful stare
And take a sudden interest in your shoes
If you only had the courage, but you don't
She turns and leaves and you both lose
And you think about the people that you never get to love
It's not as if you even have the chance
So many worth a second life
But rarely do you get a second glance
Until fate cuts in on your dance
And you'll see her on a train that you've just missed
At a bus stop where your bus will never stop
Or in a passing Buick
When you've been pulled over by a traffic cop
Or you'll share an elevator, just you two
And you'll rise in total silence to your floor
Like the fool you are, you get off
And she leaves your life behind a closing door
And you think about the people that you never get to love
The poem you intended to begin
The saddest words that anyone has ever said
Are "Lord, what might have been"
But no one said you get to win
Still you're never gonna miss what you don't know
And you don't know who you'll meet at half past three
It could be a total stranger
Who looks something just exactly much like me
One of the people that you never get to love
One of the people that you never get to love
The people that you never get to love
And you see her in nonfiction V through Y
She looks up from World War II
And then you catch her catching you catching her eye
And you quickly turn away your wishful stare
And take a sudden interest in your shoes
If you only had the courage, but you don't
She turns and leaves and you both lose
And you think about the people that you never get to love
It's not as if you even have the chance
So many worth a second life
But rarely do you get a second glance
Until fate cuts in on your dance
And you'll see her on a train that you've just missed
At a bus stop where your bus will never stop
Or in a passing Buick
When you've been pulled over by a traffic cop
Or you'll share an elevator, just you two
And you'll rise in total silence to your floor
Like the fool you are, you get off
And she leaves your life behind a closing door
And you think about the people that you never get to love
The poem you intended to begin
The saddest words that anyone has ever said
Are "Lord, what might have been"
But no one said you get to win
Still you're never gonna miss what you don't know
And you don't know who you'll meet at half past three
It could be a total stranger
Who looks something just exactly much like me
One of the people that you never get to love
One of the people that you never get to love
The people that you never get to love
more tracks from the album
From the albums
- Partners in Crime (1979)
- The Best Of Rupert Holmes (2006)
Rupert Holmes popular songs
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
- Weekend Lover
- Bagdad
- The O’Brien Girl
- Him (single edit)
- Annabella
- Special Thanks
- Cold
- Soap Opera
- Let’s Get Crazy Tonight
- You’ll Love Me Again
- Speechless
- Answering Machine
- Brass Knuckles
- I Don’t Need You
- Our National Pastime
- Partners in Crime
- Full Circle
- Morning Man
- Everything Gets Better When You’re Drunk
- Second Saxophone
- Phantom of the Opera
- Letters That Cross in the Mail
- Talk