Saturday, March 17, 2007

12:53 AM | Favorite Song No. 2 : Dream a Little Dream of Me

Here's another favorite song from my playlist...



Milton Adolphus and Gus Kahn's "Dream a Little Dream of Me" is a good example of a song I totally disliked upon first encounter, but which I would grow to love in subsequent chances of listening. There's something ultimately hopeful (and cheerful) about this love song that I can't quite place ("Stars shining bright above you / Night breezes seem to whisper 'I love you' / Birds singin' in the sycamore tree / Dream a little dream of me..."), which may have been the reason why I initially did not like it: taught by the world to appreciate only irony and the romance of sadness and bleak despair, one learns to back away from all instances of syrupy tunes. But I saw this heart-wrenching film Beautiful Thing once, which boasted in its soundtrack Mama Cass singing "Dream a Little Dream of Me," weaving it intimately into the theme of two boys discovering love and fairy tale endings in the squalor of the projects. I quickly fell in love with Mama Cass and her song, and I am in awe now over how she sang such cheerful lyrics with more than a dash of sadness and longing. But I think those exactly are the songs I grow to be passionate about: old love songs with such capacity for hope, wrapped with that romantic pulsing of sadness. My love songs tell me who I am precisely: a hopeless martyr for love, and decidedly and happily so.

Here's the lyrics, in case you want to sing along:

Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"
Birds singin' in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me

Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me
While I'm alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me

Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I'm longing to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me

(Instrumental)

Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I'm longing to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries far behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me

I think I shall do this Favorite Song thing every Saturday. Gives me something to blog about on weekends.

Labels: love, music

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