Diners Club Original

Lyrics

[Intro]
New York City.
Nineteen-fifty.
Where our story begins.
So tragic.

[Verse 1]
Frankie goes to dinner.
Major's Cabin Grill.
Smells like steak and opportunity and money standing still.
He’s talking deals with clients, he’s laughing at their jokes.
Reaches for his pocket through the clouds of cigar smoke.
Pats the left one.
Pats the right.
Oh no.
A flush of pink across his neck in the dim New York light.
The horror.
The absolute terror.
A rich man’s smallest error.

[Chorus]
Oh my god, Frank McNamara forgot his wallet.
This is a tragedy, somebody call it.
He invented a system so he’d never be embarrassed again.
A cardboard kingdom for two hundred of his friends.
Twenty-seven restaurants on the back of a card.
Solving problems that were, like, not that hard.

[Verse 2]
So he called up Ralph Schneider, said I have a little plan.
For the modern, forgetful, but respectable man.
We'll make a little club, an exclusive little scene.
Pay your bill at the end of the month, you know what I mean?
No more fumbling for cash, no more awkward little waits.
Just a flash of cardboard, signing off on your steak plates.
Revolutionary.

[Chorus]
Oh my god, Frank McNamara forgot his wallet.
This is a tragedy, somebody call it.
He invented a system so he’d never be embarrassed again.
A cardboard kingdom for two hundred of his friends.
Twenty-seven restaurants on the back of a card.
Solving problems that were, like, not that hard.

[Bridge]
And Cary Grant looked so cool, pulling it from his suit.
The foundation myth for a mountain of loot.
From a minor inconvenience, a planetary scheme.
The American consumer, a recurring bad dream.
From cardboard to plastic to a tap of your phone.
All because Frankie felt a little alone.
He died at forty-seven.
Didn’t even see it bloom.
This little idea born in a smoky room.

[Outro]
Frankie forgot his wallet…
So tragic.
Major's Cabin Grill.
February, 1950.