Skylark (1941)

Mercer/Carmichael

And in your lonely flight

haven't you heard the music in the night?

Wonderful music

Faint as a will o' the wisp 

crazy as a loon

sad as a gypsy serenading the moon

A song that has and needs no introductory verse, Skylark is one of Hoagy Carmichael's most beloved and well-known songs, with an unusual pattern of chords - especially in the bridge - that can make challenging to play or sing. Hoagy is thought to have written it as a tribute to his friend, Bix Beiderbecke. Johnny Mercer was inspired, as he mostly is, with the dreamy, nostalgic images that evoke an old Southern evening. (It seems as if Mercer read and re-read Percy Blythe Shelley's Ode to a Skylark poem many times.) The No Sleeping Dogs blog analyzes just what makes the skylark bird so special here. Lastly, I suppose I should mention the discontinued Buick Skylark, which began as a luxury sedan and ended its run as a classic muscle car after 46 years.

CHORUS

Skylark
Have you anything to say to me?

Won't you tell me where my love can be?

Is there a meadow in the mist

Where someone's waiting to be kissed?

Oh skylark
Have you seen a valley green with spring?

Where my heart can go a-journeying

Over the shadows and the rain

To a blossom covered lane

And in your lonely flight

Haven't you heard the music in the night?

Wonderful music

Faint as a will o' the wisp

Crazy as a loon

Sad as a gypsy serenading the moon

Oh skylark
I don't know if you can find these things

But my heart is riding on your wings

So if you see them anywhere

Won't you lead me there?