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| Nat King Cole 1919-1965 (he was born the same year as my mother) |
This has happened before--I have posted about it before. And here we go again ...
The other night (why?) I started remembering (some of) the lyrics to a song whose title I couldn't have told you without the gift of Google. All I could remember: (1) it was from my youth, (2) it contained the phrase that Sunday, that summer.
I thought Johnny Mathis had sung it--so I checked him out first--and he did. But when I saw the list of other performers who had recorded it, I knew it hadn't been Mathis I'd remembered. It was Nat King Cole. And it was called "That Sunday, That Summer." (See, I had remembered the title!)
Released on August 31,1963 (I had just completed my freshman year at Hiram College), the song (written by Joe Sherman and George Davis Weiss) would rise to #12 on the Billboard chart on November 2, 1963--just nine days before my 19th birthday!
If you check out this link--and listen--you will see how much popular music has changed since I was 19. Oh, sure, there was lots of rock-n-roll by then (Elvis, Buddy Holly, et al, ; Beatlemania had already commenced), but every now and then a mellow, wistful song like Cole's would rise on the charts.
Link to Cole performing the song.
I've got to confess: Right now, listening, I have tears in my eyes. And not because it takes me back to 1963 (though it does do that), but because it expresses exactly how I feel about the day I met Joyce--that summer of 1969. The song's wish is mine, as well. And will be until I can no longer wish at all.
**
If I had to choose just one day
If I had to choose just one day
To last my whole life through
It would surely be that Sunday
The day that I met you
Newborn whippoorwills were calling from the hills
Summer was a-coming in but fast
Lots of daffodils were showing off their skills
Nodding all together, I could almost hear them whisper
"Go on, kiss her, go on and kiss her"
And if I had to choose one moment
To live within my heart
It would be that tender moment
Recalling how we started
Darling, it would be when you smiled at me
That way, that Sunday, that summer
Newborn whippoorwills were calling from the hills
Summer was a-comin' in but fast
Lots of daffodils were showin' off their skills
Nodding all together, I could almost hear them whisper
"Go on, kiss her, go on and kiss her"
If I had to choose one moment
To live within my heart
It would be that tender moment
Recalling how we started
Darling, it would be when you smiled at me
That way, that Sunday, that summer
If I had to choose just one day
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