LONG
AGO AND FAR AWAY
DICK
HAYMES & HELEN FORREST
SONGWRITERS:
JEROME KERN & IRA GERSHWIN
COUNTRY:
U. S. A.
ALBUM:
LONG AGO AND FAR AWAY
LABEL:
MCA RECORDS
GENRE:
JAZZ
YEAR:
1983
"Long Ago (and Far
Away)" is a popular song from the 1944 Technicolor film musical Cover Girl
starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly and released by Columbia Pictures. The
music was written by Jerome Kern, and the lyrics were written by Ira Gershwin.
The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1944 but
lost out to “Swinging on a Star”. The song was published in 1944 and sold over
600,000 copies in sheet music in a year. In 2004 it finished #92 in AFI's 100
Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
In the film it is sung by
Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Martha Mears) to Gene Kelly, and later briefly
reprised by Jinx Falkenburg. Charting versions were recorded almost
simultaneously by Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest, Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford, and Perry
Como.
The Dick Haymes-Helen
Forrest recording was released by Decca Records as catalog number 23317. The
record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on April 27, 1944 and lasted
11 weeks on the chart, peaking at #2.
[Her]
Long ago and far away
I dreamed a dream one day
And now that dream is here beside me
Long the skies were overcast
But now the clouds have passed
You're here at last
Chills run up and down my spine
Aladdin's lamp is mine
The dream I dreamed was not denied me
Just one look and then I knew
That all I longed for long ago was you
[Him]
Long ago and far away
I dreamed a dream one day
And now that dream is here beside me
Long the skies were overcast
But now the clouds have passed
You're here at last
Chills run up and down my spine
Aladdin's lamp is mine
The dream I dreamed was not denied me
Just one look and then I knew
That all I longed for long ago was you
[Her]
Just one look and then I knew
[Him, with her humming along]
That all I longed for long ago
[Both)]
Was you..