“Post it, or you’re stupid!”
“If you guys don’t add this to the list, then it just shows you don’t know a great love song when you hear one!” This from loyal reader, and subscriber, Evelyn, as she gently encouraged us to add her favorite love song to the list of The World’s Great Love Songs. She didn’t really call us stupid.
In all fairness, Evelyn emailed us twice regarding her recommendation, and we failed to respond in a timely manner. We get a lot of email, and sometimes it takes a few days to get back to people. In our defense, we didn’t regard this as an emergency situation. So, by the third email, when Evelyn made the statement quoted above, she was feeling ignored. So, recognizing an unhappy reader when we see one, we contacted Evelyn right away and told her we were on it. We promised we would be looking at What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life that very day. And we did.
We’re happy to report that Evelyn’s right. This is one of the great love songs of all time. It was written by the husband and wife team of Marilyn and Alan Bergman, with music by Michel Legrand, and this video is the only known performance of the song, by Streisand, to have been captured on video. She originally recorded the song for her 1974 album The Way We Were, but the video is from her 1993 concert tour.
The song has been nominated for an Oscar (1969), and has won two Grammy awards (1973 and 2006). And now, thanks to Evelyn’s persistence, it has made the big time; a place on the ValiantHearts list of The World’s Great Love Songs.
We hope Evelyn has forgiven our slow pace, and we thank her for not giving up on us. If you have a favorite song that you believe belongs on the list, please let us know. We’ll try to get to your request faster than we did Evelyn’s, and if we agree with you, we’ll post it. Or, we’ll just be stupid.
Thanks,
Dave
