When she moved to the city, she was twenty years old
Coming from the Midwest, she had never left home
Up on the Brooklyn Bridge, she took a deep breath
The boys on Water Street whistled and chimed
Singing, "Hey, Senorita, my you look fine"
And baby, take a deep breath
Hey-la, hey-la-la-la, living in the city that never stops
Sweet little baby's in for a shock cause the streets of Soho ain't like Iowa

She got a job at a deli on Maple and Kent
Five dollars an hour, can barely make rent
And she's closing up late
She struck up with an actor who waited on tables
He told her he loved her, so she let him stay
And he was gone the next day
And hey-la, hey-la-la-la, living in the city that never stops
Sweet little baby's in for a shock cause the streets of Soho ain't like Iowa

There's beggars and brokers, artists and millionaires
Women in fur coats and strippers upstairs
There's graffiti on back walls and sleeping in alleyways
Forty-seven floors, yeah, she's come along way
There're lawyers and bankers and limos and taxi cabs
Buses and traffic are blaring their horns
There's shouting in Spanish and hey-la-la-la
It ain't like Iowa

Now she's living with a stripper in a one-room flat
And she wonders what her daddy would have thought about that
But she wouldn't wanna go back, wouldn't wanna go back to Iowa
And she is locking up the deli and getting on the subway
Pulls a cigarette out, it's been a long hard day
But she's feeling grown up, take a deep breath
And hey-la, hey-la-la-la, living in the city that never stops
Sweet little baby's in for a shock cause the streets of Soho ain't like Iowa

And hey-la, hey-la-la-la, living in the city that never stops
Sweet little baby's in for a shock cause the streets of Soho ain't like Iowa
The streets of Soho ain't like Iowa
The streets of Soho ain't like Iowa
The streets of Brooklyn ain't like Iowa