Wednesday 10 April 2013

Song recollections

I have a strong tendency to misrecollections, and even mondegreens, about songs heard in childhood, and a few such songs came up in conversation this evening. I thought I'd check them out.

Case 1:
Fly the ocean in a silver plane
See the jungle when it''s wet with rain.
This turns out to be correctly recalled; it comes from the 1952 You Belong To Me. Here's the Jason Wade cover:



Case 2:
Those faraway places
Where elephants roam
This Google finds - the tune also identifies it - to be misremembered lyrics of the 1948 Far Away Places:
Those faraway places
With strange soundin' names
Here's the 1961 Sam Cooke cover:


Case 3:
I never see the morning bright,
I sleep all day and dance all night.
I know that it's wrong, but it's swell.
This one is baffling me.

- Ray

2 comments:

  1. Aha ... is Sam Cooke a definite, then, for Faraway places?

    Back in 2008 I never got to the bottom of it :-)

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  2. Sam Cooke a definite, then?

    No - I should have been more explicit - he did a cover in 1961. The song was published in 1948; I think Bing Crosby did the first recording.

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