Song Of Love, aka "This Song of Love" or aka "It's Just For You", was recorded and filmed during the Get Back sessions by The Beatles at Twickenham Film Studios which produced both the Let it Be film and album. During one of the sessions, on 14 January 1969 (DDSI 14.23-24[1]), Paul McCartney sits alone at the piano, plays a nice melody and sings, first in his normal voice, then later performing heavy impersonations of a lounge singer and then Elvis Presley.
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It's just for you that I sing this song this morning
It's just for you that I sing this song each night
and every night I sing, I sing this song of love
It's just for you, just for you
that I sing this song of love
It's just for you that I sing this song this morning
It's just for you that I sing this song each night
and as the sun sets off the range and every morning
It's just for you that I sing a song of love
It's just for you that I sing this song this winter
It's just for you that I sing a song this spring
and every time? it makes drops on the face of someone else
It's just for you that I sing this song of love
sing a song of love
sing a song of love
love
It's just for you that I sing this song of sand hills
It's just for you that I sing a song of seas
and as the waves fall upon the Alabama?
Mary, it's just for you that I sing this song of love
my song of love
my song of love
It's just for you that I lie beside this morning
It's just for you that I sing this song each night
and as the moon sets below a new horizon
It's just for you that I sing my song of love
It's just for you that I sing this song every night
It's just for you that I sing a song of joy
as the light fails across the fields of meadow
It's just for you that I sing my song of love
Song of Love has not been officially released, but exists on many Beatles Bootleg Recordings. It remained unidentified for several years until a challenge was issued to the readers of the scholarly journal of Beatles recordings, The 910[2] in which the editors beseeched:
Okay, come on, gang! Someone definitively identify that song! We give up.
The song was inspired by the film Song of Love (1947 MGM) with Katharine Hepburn (as Clara Schumann), Paul Henreid (as Robert Schumann) and Robert Walker (as Johannes Brahms). Specifically, the scene in which Johannes plays a portion of his Hungarian Dance No. 4 on the piano, for Clara and Robert in their living room, at the dramatic point in the film where Robert's auditory hallucinations begin, which will later drive him to madness.
The melody is identical, and it appears that Paul added his own lyrics, conspicuously using the film's title, "Song Of Love". (Perhaps the film was shown in London just prior to the January 1969 sessions?).
So this song should be credited as follows:
Song Of Love: lyrics by Paul McCartney inspired by the film Song Of Love, and based on the music of Johannes Brahms' "Hungarian Dance No. 4".
It is of interest to note that this is one of the few explicit examples of a Beatles song being influenced by Classical Music. Another example would be John Lennon and Yoko Ono playing the chords to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in reverse order, which inspired the song Because.
Note that this is not the first time that scene from the movie Song of Love has inspired a song.
As Years Go By (by Charles Tobias and Peter DeRose) was a popular song in 1947. On its published sheet music, it states that it was based on Johannes Brahms "Hungarian Dance No. 4" and INSPIRED by the film "Song Of Love". (Note: some reference books erroneously list the SONG as being IN the film version).
But althogh the melody is again the same, the lyrics are quite different, i.e.
As years go by,
this love we know,
As years go by,
will live and grow.
It will remain,
our love's refrain.
Like songs of long ago.
When autumn calls
a leaf that falls
is soon forgotten.
A brook run dry
and birds may fly away.
As years go by
and youth has fled.
When sil'vry hair
has crowned your head.
You'll still have me.
I'll still have you.
To love.
As years go by.
As years go by.
So it is unlikely that Paul McCartney was thinking of this song, but rather the above mentioned scene in the film "Song Of Love".
Paul McCartney's performance of the "Song of Love" appeared on the following bootleg albums:
The film "Song Of Love" (MGM 1947) is available on home video, and is also occasionally shown on the cable TV channel "Turner Classic Movies".
The song "As Years Go By" was composed by Charles Tobias and Peter De Rose, copyright 1947, published by Miller Music Corporation and was recorded by:
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©Copyright 1997 and 2007
Mario Giannella
Knoxville, TN
January 1997, updated December 2007
beatlesong@yahoo.com
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