Johnny Mathis ~ Long Ago and Far Away ~~

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Johnny singing my most favorite of all from the 1986 album, "Hollywood Musicals", Mathis and Mancini magic at work. While tough to choose as this is a beautiful CD, each song a treasure. "'Long Ago and Far Away' is one of Jerome Kern's most haunting melodies--his 'last great masterpiece,' in the words of his biographer, Gerald Bordman..... In Johnny's hands this 'haunting' essence and emotional appeal to the sweet memory of love emerges effortlessly. While there is a live version of this up on YT, I wanted to offer just one other perspective with a focus on the entirety of the song's origin, including some photo stills of Johnny that I hope will touch you as much as the song. Please enjoy. This IS romance at it's very, very best. (Read on for more history of Gershwin, Kern and history of the song and film for which it was written- "Cover Girl", '44, and the 'breakthrough' roles for Hayworth and Kelly).

As you'll see in the film clip stills (middle of video), Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin who wrote this and all of the songs for the 1944 film Cover Girl, stars Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly. The film made a pinup girl of Hayworth in "world weary WWII when lovers and families were separated", and a leading man of Gene Kelly. Gershwin apparently struggled throughout with the lyric and title- but finally emerged with the greatest lyric of his career- and biggest hit in any one year with over 600,000 copies of sheet music sales. (see article http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-2/longago.htm).