You and I in a little toy shop,
buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got.
Set them free at the break of dawn
'Til one by one, they were gone.
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, "Something's out there."
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by.

99 red balloons floating in the summer sky.
Panic bells, it's red alert.
There's something here from somewhere else.
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye.
Focusing it on the sky
As 99 red balloons go by.

99 Decision Street, 99 ministers meet
to worry, worry, super-scurry.
Call out the troops now in a hurry.
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war!
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by

99 knights of the air ride super high-tech jet figthers
Everyone's a super hero
Everyone's a captain kirk!
With orders to identify
Clarify and classify
Scrambling in the summer sky
As 99 red balloons go

99 dreams I have had,
And every one, a red balloon.
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In the dust that was a city.
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here...
And here it is, a red balloon
I think of you and let it go...