A list of the other songs nominated by Bob within his post-doctorate book, which we have already covered, is given at the end. Each article has at least one recording of the song within it.
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By Tony Attwood
“My Prayer” was composed in 1939 with music by violinist Georges Boulanger and lyrics by Carlos Gomez Barrera and Jimmy Kennedy, which has featured in a number of films over the years. The original song written in 1926, had the title Avant de mourir (Before dying) in 1926. Jimmy Kennedy wrote the English lyrics for this version in 1939.
In that year Glen Miller then recorded the song followed by the Ink Spots and both were top ten hits in America. This is a re-mastered copy
In the same year the Ink Spots made a recording and that also made the US top ten.
With such prescedents it is not surprising that the song has continued to be recorded by many artists, although I think most of us who have listened to the music of the 1950s will remember the hit by the Platters (above). For most of those who remember the song that is probably the version they will receall.
The song has also turned up in several films, including the English film “One Exciting Night” sung by Vera Lynn, perhaps the most popular female vocalist of the age in the UK.
So what made Bob choose this song? Certainly, for those who study or recall the music of the late 1930s and onwards, it is one of the songs that one comes across over and over again. It is an incredibly simple song, as the lyrics below show, but it is packed with emotion, which cannot be misinterpreted or misunderstood, and perhaps that is what made it such a hit.
What has puzzled me, however, is why Bob chose it. Perhaps because it is an example of how utter simplicity in lyrics can still be turned into a beautiful melody… but I think I would have to find something written not too long after the song’s release fully to understand what everyone seemed to find within the song. I am clearly of the wrong generation to understand.
But what the song does show us is where the very simple songs of the 1950s got their inspiration from. By the 50s the music was much more lively of course, but the notion that the song’s lyrics could be this simple had been secured in the public’s mind.
When the twilight is gone And no songbirds are singing When the twilight is gone You come into my heart And here in my heart you will stay While I pray My prayer is to linger with you At the end of the day In a dream that's divine My prayer is a rapture in blue With the world far away And your lips close to mine Tonight while our hearts are aglow Oh, tell me the words That I'm longing to know
Previously in this series
- Ball of confusion
- Blue Bayou
- Blue Suede Shoes
- Cheaper to Keep Her
- CIA Man – the Fugs
- Detroit City
- Don’t let me be misunderstood
- Dirty Life and Times
- Detroit City
- Dirty Life and Times
- Don’t let me be misunderstood
- El Paso
- I got a woman
- If you don’t know me by now
- I’ve always been crazy
- Jesse James and Po Boy
- Keep my Skillet Good and Greasy
- Little White Cloud that Cried
- London’s Calling
- Mac the Knife
- Midnight Rider
- Money Honey
- My Generation and Desolation Row
- My prayer
- Nellie was a Lady
- Old Violin by Johnny Paycheck
- On the road again (save a horse)
- On the street where you live
- Pancho and Lefty
- Please don’t let me be misunderstood
- Poor Little Fool
- Poison Love
- Pump it up
- Ruby are you mad
- Saturday night at the movies
- Strangers in the Night
- Truckin
- Take Me from This Garden of Evil
- The Pretender
- The Whiffenpoof Song
- There stands the glass
- Tutti Fruiti (A wap bop a … etc)
- Volare
- Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
- When
- Where or When
- Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me
- Without a song
- Your cheating heart