I Can Dream, Can't I? (1939)

S. Fain/I. Kahal

"I'm aware my heart is a sad affair

There's much disillusion there, but I can dream, can't I?"

The Andrews Sisters had a hit with this, yet another song of desperate love, but I prefer Tommy Dorsey 's version with the somewhat forgotten Jo Stafford singing the vocals. Karen Carpenter, perhaps oddly, also sang this tune, which becomes that much more poignant when you are aware of her too short, too sad life. And another twist: the great Cass Elliot sings it, too, if somewhat blandly.


VERSE
As we eye the blue horizon's bend
Earth and sky appear to meet and end
But it's merely an illusion
Like your heart and mine
There is no conclusion...

CHORUS

I can see

No matter how near you'll be

You'll never belong to me

But I can dream, can't I?

Can't I pretend that I'm locked in the bend of your embrace?

For dreams are just like wine

And I am drunk with mine

I'm aware

My heart is a sad affair

There's much disillusion there

But I can dream, can't I?

Can't I adore you

Although we are oceans apart?

I can't make you open your heart

But I can dream, can't I?

Hawaiian Wedding Song (1961)

King/Hoffman/Manning


Now that we are one

Clouds won't hide the sun

Blue skies of Hawaii smile

On this our wedding day

The new Baz Luhrmann IMAX concert film Elvis Presley In Concert – EPIC – is out and hopefully is introducing the King to a new generation of fans. With Elvis gone since 1977, it's been more than a generation since he has been a key name in popular music. Much has been written about his circumscribed and sort of sad life, and then there are the many impersonators. Yet he remains one of the best singers of the 20th Century, at least in my opinion. All the films that his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, contracted him into are horrible, and Blue Hawaii is no exception. But his singing is at an apex. Only  Elvis can take a Hawaiian folk song, add a bunch of hokey background singers, and turn it into a love song that will stand through both volcanic and the sands of time. R.I.P. and ELVIS LIVES. 

This is the moment
I've waited for
I can hear my heart singing
Soon bells will be ringing

This is the moment
Of sweet aloha

I will love you longer than forever

Promise me that you will leave me never

Here and now, dear
All my love I vow, dear
Promise me that you will leave me never
I will love you longer than forever

Ua sila
Pa‘a ‘ia me ‘oe
Ko aloha makamae e ipo
Ka'u ia e lei a‘e nei la

Now that we are one
Clouds won't hide the sun
Blue skies of Hawaii smile
On this, our wedding day
I do love you with all my heart
I do love you with all my heart

My Funny Valentine (1937)

Rodgers/Hart

But don't change a hair for me

Not if you care for me

Stay, little Valentine stay

With Valentine's Day around the corner, and a new bio-pic of Lorenz Hart now out, let's remember Lorenz Hart, who never found love in his own life although he wrote about it so well. Together with his musical partner, Richard Rogers, they wrote over 500 songs together, until Hart's death at age 48. Hart was very self-conscious and insecure about his looks: he was under five feet tall with outsized, facial features and ears. He was also habitually late and alcoholic, which led Richard Rogers to select another lyricist (Oscar Hammerstein) to write the lyrics for Oklahoma!  The 2026 bio-pic Blue Moon, with Ethan Hawke as Hart, focuses on the later part of Hart's life, when he is unemployable and drowning in both drink and sorrow. Sad as his life was, his collaborations with Rogers produced some of the loveliest music of the era. Hart's lyrics, always clever and poetic, often contain a hint of sadness in them. 

VERSE

Behold the way our fine-feathered friend
His virtue doth parade.
Thou knowest not, my dim-witted friend
The picture thou hast made.

Thy vacant brow and thy tousled hair
Conceal thy good intent.
Thou noble, upright, truthful sincere,
And slightly dopey gent - your're --

CHORUS

My funny Valentine

Sweet comic Valentine

You make me smile with my heart

Your looks are laughable

Unphotographable

Yet you're my favourite work of art

Is your figure less than Greek

Is your mouth a little weak

When you open it to speak

Are you smart?

But don't change a hair for me

Not if you care for me

Stay little Valentine stay

Each day is Valentine's Day

Is your figure less than Greek

Is your mouth a little weak

When you open it to speak

Are you smart?

But don't change one hair for me

Not if you care for me

Stay little Valentine stay

Each day is Valentine's Day

Body and Soul (1930)

Green/Heyman/Sour/Eyton

My life's a hell you’re making

You know I'm yours for just the taking

I'd gladly surrender myself to you
Body and soul

Many songs are about the pain of love, sadness, and surrender - but Body and Soul has always seemed especially full of desperation, with some of the most urgent words to a beloved. I would have said that the version I knew for so long, Billie Holiday's version, was the most heartbreaking until Amy Winehouse recorded the song (with Tony Bennett) not long before her death.

VERSE 

You're making me blue

All that you do

Seems unfair

You try not to hear

Turn a deaf ear

To my prayer

It seems you don't want to see

What you are doing to me

My arms are waiting to caress you

And to my heart they long to press you, sweet heart

CHORUS

My heart is sad and lonely

For you I cry

For you, dear, only

I tell you I mean it

I'm all for you

Body and soul

I spend my days in longing

And wondering it's me you're wronging

Why haven't you seen it

I'm all for you

Body and soul

I can't believe it

It hard to conceive it

That you'd turn away romance

Are you pretending

Don't say it's the ending

I wish I could have one more chance to prove, dear

My life a hell you’re making

You know I'm yours for just the taking

I'd gladly surrender

Myself to you

Body and soul

VERSE 2

Life's dreary for me

Day's seem to be long as years

I've looked for the sun

But can see none

Through my tears

Your heart must be like a stone

To leave me like this alone

When you could make my life worth living

By taking what I'm set on giving, sweetheart

Cold, Cold Heart (1951)

H. Williams


"Why can't I free your doubtful mind
and melt your cold, cold heart?"

Read the genius of the simple lyrics that are so well put together in meter and rhyme. It's almost like a real conversation, right? Like a country Shakespeare. And he died at age thirty, under mysterious circumstances (well, too many drugs and alcohol) in the back of his chauffeured limousine on the way to a gig. Hank wrote over 150 songs during his brief career, with many becoming classics: Hey, Good Looking; Your Cheatin' Heart; Jambalaya; Move It On Over, and a "song that broke the internet" in 2024, "Lovesick Blues."

LYRICS

I tried so hard my dear to show that you're my every dream
Yet you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme
A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now for things I didn't do
In anger unkind words are spoke that make the teardrops start
Why can't I free your doubtful mind,and melt your cold cold heart

You'll never know how much it hurts to see you sit and cry
You know you need and want my love yet you're afraid to try
Why do you run and hide from life,to try it just ain't smart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

There was a time when I believed that you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled to a memory
The more I learn to care for you, the more we drift apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart

A Kiss to Build a Dream On (1935)

Ruby/Kalmar/Hammerstein

"Give me a kiss before you leave me
And my imagination will feed my hungry heart."

This week, New York City is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World's Fair: the few colossal structures still standing were opened up to the public; volunteers worked to spruce up some of the badly neglected areas to make it more attractive. Over 50 million visitors went to the World's Fair in Flushing, Queens, the two seasons it was open, including my family - I remember my sister and I had to wear white kid gloves and hats. Many of the original structures were destroyed after the Fair ended; rumors have been circulating that the remaining ones will be razed as well. How might this connect to the song, Give Me a Kiss to Build a Dream On, other than a slight reference to building? Well, Louis Armstrong, who had a big hit with the song in 1951, lived in Queens - not far from the World's Fair site. 

CHORUS

Give me a kiss to build a dream on
And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss
Sweetheart, I ask no more than this
A kiss to build a dream on

Give me a kiss before you leave me
And my imagination will feed my hungry heart
Leave me one thing before we part
A kiss to build a dream on

When I'm alone with my fancies
I'll be with you
Weaving romances
Making believe they’re true

Oh, give me your lips for just a moment
And my imagination will make that moment live
Mmm, give me what you alone can give
A kiss to build a dream on