"Where or When" is a timeless song that captures the imagination with its clever and romantic lyrics. Written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, this classic song has been covered by countless artists and continues to enchant listeners with its beautiful melody and imaginative lyrics. The song is a testament to the incredible thought that went into its creation. The lyrics are filled with imagery that paints a vivid picture of two lovers lost in time, trying to find each other again. The opening lines set the tone for the entire song: "It seems we stood and talked like this before But I can't remember where or when" These simple yet evocative lines create a sense of nostalgia and longing that is at the heart of the song. As the song continues, the lyrics become even more imaginative, with references to moonlit nights, soft breezes, and the magic of love. The melody of "Where or When" is equally captivating, with its soaring chorus and lush instrumentation. From the first notes of the piano to the final crescendo of the orchestra, the music perfectly captures the romantic and imaginative spirit of the lyrics. The many references to the past suggests the song captured a period of time. A period of time that is gone forever.
One of the best renditions of Where or When. This is how the song was originally sung -- as a duet between two young people rather than an overwrought jazz solo. Fantastic.
There are several great versions of this song on RUclips, but in my opinion this is the best because it's acted as well as sung by two great performers.
Their songs were all written to be acted as much as sung, so while they work very well as solos by great vocal stylists--they always mean more when there's a character there--and that character is Lorenz Hart. Begging to be loved. Please God, let somebody have heard him. I don't know where or when, but somebody.
WOW! So grateful to have discovered this most beautiful duet by these 2 young people! This was elegantly filmed; the now ancient refrigerator, the general appearance of the kitchen…so 50s, and charming! Best of all are their beautiful voices! It's as if they were meant to sing to one another. Many thanks fschnell for your brilliant post! varadero
Technically, the story is set in the Depression, and there shouldn't be any refrigerator. That's an icebox. With actual ice (well, they probably didn't bother to put ice in it). They're both a bit long in the tooth to be playing teenagers, but that's nitpicking, when they sing the song so well, and convey the emotions behind it so poignantly. The actor who first played Valentine was 28 when the show opened, but most of the cast were actual teenagers. (And a few were even younger).
I'm also enjoying the acting with the singing. Their smiles are just right, especially Brian d'Arcy James's with the transformation from tentative to pleased while a bit bashful.
I love this song since i was little at dance class and at the recital and we were so in awe of the talent and what seemed to my 5 year old eyes very difficult choreography that 'the big girls' (read:Older Teenaged girls and young adult women) could do. 4 of them danced a beautiful lyrical number to this song. And this is the version! Been looking for the version they danced to for years
I feel that this song has some amazing ethereal quality that I can't quite put my finger on. It seems so beautiful and so utterly perfect that although I know that it was created by mere morals, there lingers a nagging doubt in the back of my my mind that it is of this world. A melody of preternatural loveliness always floating just above the ground, yet never quite touching it. I do not recall ever hearing music that I felt was more beautiful than this. I am awed by it.
Since this was published in 1937 and WW2 was soon to happen, I get the feeling this is a couple that met before the war, then the uncertainty of those four years, and now they're meeting again after the war, a war he wasn't sure he was going to survive, and now nothing can stop them.
One of the 8-10 greatest songs from the American golden age, 1920-1960- certainly very close to the very best. This and "I didnt know what time it was" are probably the two best by R & H, along with "My Funny Valentine. "
Ah, my high school summer musical, from 1975. The audience was spared me singing this wonderful song but, as Gus, I did get to 'sing' 'I Wish I Was in Love Again'. Every song in this show is like summer out loud.
Yes So ethereal, some deja vu and serendipity at work here, sung by two ordinary looking people, with the most extraordinary voices that compliment each other like? Peaches & Cream, beautiful !
(Chorus) [VALENTINE] It seems we stood and talked like this before We looked at each other in the same way then But I can't remember where or when The clothes you're wearing are the clothes you wore The smile you are smiling you were smiling then But I can't remember where or when Some things that happen for the first time Seem to be happening again And so it seems that we have met before And laughed before and loved before But who knows where or when? (Verse) [BILLIE] When you're awake, the things you think Come from the dreams you dream Thought has wings And lots of things Are seldom what they seem Sometimes you think you've lived before All that you live today Things you do Come back to you As though they knew the way Oh, the tricks your mind can play! It seems we stood and talked like this before We looked at each other in the same way then But I can't remember where or when The clothes you're wearing are the clothes you wore The smile you are smiling you were smiling then But I can't remember where or when Some things that happen for the first time Seem to be happening again And so it seems that we have met before And laughed before and loved before But who knows where or when? (instrumental break) [VALENTINE AND BILLIE] And so it seems that we have met before And laughed before, and loved before But who knows where or when?
Egan is breathtaking. This is just how Rodgers & Hart should be sung. As if the words were just occurring to you, the melody came out of thin air, the feelings spontaneous and unexpected, full of delight and melancholy. So many great singers have performed this (usually not the full stage version). She tops them all, even Peggy Lee. Less enchanted with Mr. d'Arcy, but then again, he's got a nice reedy tenor, along with the vacant brow and tousled hair. And to be done 100% right, it has to be a duet. Maybe this show was never done 100% right--maybe it can't be. But just once, I'd like to see it live. Actually, what I'd like to do is go back in time and kill whoever ruined the 1939 MGM version. Seriously? Not only do they cut most of the best songs, they turn this one into something sung by the entire cast, and Judy Garland just gets a wee snatch of it? Don't get me started on the blackface number. (Which apparently offended test audiences, not because it was ludicrous, but because they thought Mickey and Judy were actually black--they had to go back and shoot a scene of them putting on the makeup.
Since finding this, I've also discovered a truly great rendition by Barbara Cook (from her magnificent R&H tribute album of the 50's, with superb offbeat arrangements). But in terms of depicting the characters in the play--in terms of the duet between soulmates this song was written to be--this is probably as good at it can ever get. I assume the arrangement is Hans Spialek's? I very badly underrated Brian d'Aarcy. Sometimes it takes a few listenings to really hear.
This song is not about past loves, past lives or reincarnation. It’s about the feeling of deja’vu one might feel at a first intense romantic encounter. Read the lyrics. In the original form the last line is: “The mind plays tricks on you”.
Surfing around RUclips versions of this as I suddenly began singing it out of the blue this evening (deja vu moment?) and looking for a version approximating my range. These two are maybe a half-tone high for me. I notice the jazz and other treatments, even by greats like Ella Fitzgerald, just don't do the song justice 'cause it needs a musical singer's heft--stage volume I guess--to elevate the musical progression.
In my senior year of high school we did a production of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". It's not one of Rodgers and Hart's best, and that despite the genius of our best writer, Mark Twain. Although the school did pay the meager royalties, the director decided to give the play itself little respect. She decided to keep two or three of the best songs, and then stole the creme de la creme from their other musicals. The fact that they didn't fit the plot didn't bother her. It might have been the greatest musical score of all time. This masterpiece was included, and it actually does fit the plot pretty well. I played Merlin the magician, and I bought my makeup in the same places near Times Square where real Broadway actors bought theirs. I was very involved in the production in almost every aspect. My passion was the theater, and I was very lucky to live only half an hour from the theater district. Merlin has no songs, but she decided that I might sing another masterpiece, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", from "Pal Joey", their last show. The song could hardly relate less to the part. She decided, correctly, that my singing voice wasn't good enough. I couldn't sing, but taking into account that I was a big fish in a tiny pond, I could ACT, which was resoundingly affirmed at curtain call time.
Lovely orchestra! Full sounding. But the best version of this song is in the film Alice doesn‘t live here anymore with Ellen Burstyn. It’s never left me
Hey guys, Just wondering, from someone in the know, what are the character descriptions for the version of babes in arms with billie, dolores and mrs owen in?? Because I'm being ignorant as there are sooooo many versions of this show. But I have an audition for it and cant seem to get straight which character is which? Please HELPPP if you can....thankssss sooo much. :)
I have this song for my vocal lessons and I can't sing it. Seriously I just can't sing this song and I don't know why. It's terrible because I want to be able to.
Your right. After reading your comment I listened again. Brian just can't let go of a vowel. Still, a nice rendition of one of my top 10 songs. In any event, thank god it wasn't like the Sinatra version where at the end the orchestra and Sinatra were competing with each to see who could be the loudest or who could drown out the others' voice.
One of the most beautiful songs EVER written. Truly a masterpiece of words and music.
Yeah. It makes me feel a sort of camraderie at arms length
"Where or When" is a timeless song that captures the imagination with its clever and romantic lyrics. Written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, this classic song has been covered by countless artists and continues to enchant listeners with its beautiful melody and imaginative lyrics.
The song is a testament to the incredible thought that went into its creation. The lyrics are filled with imagery that paints a vivid picture of two lovers lost in time, trying to find each other again. The opening lines set the tone for the entire song:
"It seems we stood and talked like this before
But I can't remember where or when"
These simple yet evocative lines create a sense of nostalgia and longing that is at the heart of the song. As the song continues, the lyrics become even more imaginative, with references to moonlit nights, soft breezes, and the magic of love.
The melody of "Where or When" is equally captivating, with its soaring chorus and lush instrumentation. From the first notes of the piano to the final crescendo of the orchestra, the music perfectly captures the romantic and imaginative spirit of the lyrics. The many references to the past suggests the song captured a period of time. A period of time that is gone forever.
👌
I think this version is absolutely fabulous - for both the voices and personalities - I play
it time & time again - I don't remember where or when
One of Rodgers & Hart's half dozen or so best songs, and I've never heard it sung better.
Richard Rodgers' favorite of the songs he wrote with Larry Hart, according to this documentary.
One of the best renditions of Where or When. This is how the song was originally sung -- as a duet between two young people rather than an overwrought jazz solo. Fantastic.
Yes, exactly on all counts.
There are several great versions of this song on RUclips, but in my opinion this is the best because it's acted as well as sung by two great performers.
Nah, i prefer the Peggy Lee version.
I prefer George Michael version a 100 %, but I'm thankful to these guys for creating this beautiful song for the future 🙏
Their songs were all written to be acted as much as sung, so while they work very well as solos by great vocal stylists--they always mean more when there's a character there--and that character is Lorenz Hart. Begging to be loved. Please God, let somebody have heard him. I don't know where or when, but somebody.
WOW! So grateful to have discovered this most beautiful duet by these 2 young people! This was elegantly filmed; the now ancient refrigerator, the general appearance of the kitchen…so 50s, and charming! Best of all are their beautiful voices! It's as if they were meant to sing to one another. Many thanks fschnell for your brilliant post!
varadero
How about the 30's?
Technically, the story is set in the Depression, and there shouldn't be any refrigerator. That's an icebox. With actual ice (well, they probably didn't bother to put ice in it).
They're both a bit long in the tooth to be playing teenagers, but that's nitpicking, when they sing the song so well, and convey the emotions behind it so poignantly. The actor who first played Valentine was 28 when the show opened, but most of the cast were actual teenagers. (And a few were even younger).
I'm also enjoying the acting with the singing. Their smiles are just right, especially Brian d'Arcy James's with the transformation from tentative to pleased while a bit bashful.
This song is from the year of my birth and I have loved it for as long as I can remember. They don't write songs like this anymore.
I played this at my first piano recital in third grade (1958) and I still adore it!
loving and missing my dear departed parents on this special day
LOVE her voice! just fantastic - so pure, clear and simple! Love their combined vibrato, a marvelous blend.
Brings tears evert time.
I love this song since i was little at dance class and at the recital and we were so in awe of the talent and what seemed to my 5 year old eyes very difficult choreography that 'the big girls' (read:Older Teenaged girls and young adult women) could do. 4 of them danced a beautiful lyrical number to this song. And this is the version! Been looking for the version they danced to for years
You would be hard pushed to name a better song ;what a melody and such a clever lyric. One of the very best songs ever written I would say.
...and I would second
It WAS true perfection and the lyrics to this beautiful song are timeless.
The two of them remind me of my blessed Parents, the dress looks and music so beautiful
I feel that this song has some amazing ethereal quality that I can't quite put my finger on. It seems so beautiful and so utterly perfect that although I know that it was created by mere morals, there lingers a nagging doubt in the back of my my mind that it is of this world. A melody of preternatural loveliness always floating just above the ground, yet never quite touching it. I do not recall ever hearing music that I felt was more beautiful than this. I am awed by it.
And I am awed by your comment. You expressed what I was feeling myself but didn't have the words for. Thank you.
No words can describe how "beautifully" this awesome song is being done, off the hook, it totally rocks! LOL No one does it better!
Oh, how beautiful-one of my favorite songs from my Rodgers and Hart-I can't believe I didn't see this PBS performance!
Very well sung and gorgeous words and music by Rodgers and Hart.
Perfection, in composition and performance. Thank you.
Since this was published in 1937 and WW2 was soon to happen, I get the feeling this is a couple that met before the war, then the uncertainty of those four years, and now they're meeting again after the war, a war he wasn't sure he was going to survive, and now nothing can stop them.
One of the 8-10 greatest songs from the American golden age, 1920-1960- certainly very close to the very best. This and "I didnt know what time it was" are probably the two best by R & H, along with "My Funny Valentine. "
the best song I had heard in my life.
The best I ever heard it sung.
Ah, my high school summer musical, from 1975. The audience was spared me singing this wonderful song but, as Gus, I did get to 'sing' 'I Wish I Was in Love Again'. Every song in this show is like summer out loud.
Yes So ethereal, some deja vu and serendipity at work here, sung by two ordinary looking people, with the most extraordinary voices that compliment each other like? Peaches & Cream, beautiful !
My mother's (RIP) favorite song or so she told me once.
+Elliott Glass Art
Mine too...it's the ultimate reincarnation wish....can we do it once again?
Jules
(Chorus)
[VALENTINE]
It seems we stood and talked like this before
We looked at each other in the same way then
But I can't remember where or when
The clothes you're wearing are the clothes you wore
The smile you are smiling you were smiling then
But I can't remember where or when
Some things that happen for the first time
Seem to be happening again
And so it seems that we have met before
And laughed before and loved before
But who knows where or when?
(Verse)
[BILLIE]
When you're awake, the things you think
Come from the dreams you dream
Thought has wings
And lots of things
Are seldom what they seem
Sometimes you think you've lived before
All that you live today
Things you do
Come back to you
As though they knew the way
Oh, the tricks your mind can play!
It seems we stood and talked like this before
We looked at each other in the same way then
But I can't remember where or when
The clothes you're wearing are the clothes you wore
The smile you are smiling you were smiling then
But I can't remember where or when
Some things that happen for the first time
Seem to be happening again
And so it seems that we have met before
And laughed before and loved before
But who knows where or when?
(instrumental break)
[VALENTINE AND BILLIE]
And so it seems that we have met before
And laughed before, and loved before
But who knows where or when?
I love this musical. They’re way too old but we did this in high school.
A perfect song and done perfectly
I loved this version and loved the movie. My piano roll cannot do it justice!!
Everything about this video and song is so good and proper,
Beautifully done!
I could listen to Susan Egan all day long.
I grew up to this song, with Ray Coniff. I loved it. The original is precious.
Beautiful song!
This version is precious. Ah....guess I'm getting older and the past stylings seem so sweet and make sense to me
Fantastic!
Absolutely the best version of this song ever❤
Lovely! Awesome! Thanks for posting.
I absolutely LOVE this!
Magnificent!
LOVELY
Lovely 😊
Yes, please, if possible!
The song is sublime-and the girl is adorable. What more does a boy need?
Nice job.
In addition to her role as Belle onstage, she was the voice of Megara in Hercules. :)
Lovely.
I love the Videography and the music! I thought the actors were great in this clip!
They are good.
Lovely
the deja vu song
This was in the '39 movie Babes In Arms with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney alth'o' they didn't sing it.
Judy did sing a brief line from it. But the song (like most of Rodgers & Hart's score) is essentially squandered in the movie.
Gorgeous song! If I had perfect pitch I could follow the key changes and enjoy it even more, if that's possible.
Great staging! No spfx. Just good tasting & showing the ork, too.
❤️❤️
Egan is breathtaking. This is just how Rodgers & Hart should be sung. As if the words were just occurring to you, the melody came out of thin air, the feelings spontaneous and unexpected, full of delight and melancholy. So many great singers have performed this (usually not the full stage version). She tops them all, even Peggy Lee.
Less enchanted with Mr. d'Arcy, but then again, he's got a nice reedy tenor, along with the vacant brow and tousled hair. And to be done 100% right, it has to be a duet.
Maybe this show was never done 100% right--maybe it can't be. But just once, I'd like to see it live. Actually, what I'd like to do is go back in time and kill whoever ruined the 1939 MGM version. Seriously? Not only do they cut most of the best songs, they turn this one into something sung by the entire cast, and Judy Garland just gets a wee snatch of it? Don't get me started on the blackface number. (Which apparently offended test audiences, not because it was ludicrous, but because they thought Mickey and Judy were actually black--they had to go back and shoot a scene of them putting on the makeup.
Since finding this, I've also discovered a truly great rendition by Barbara Cook (from her magnificent R&H tribute album of the 50's, with superb offbeat arrangements).
But in terms of depicting the characters in the play--in terms of the duet between soulmates this song was written to be--this is probably as good at it can ever get. I assume the arrangement is Hans Spialek's?
I very badly underrated Brian d'Aarcy. Sometimes it takes a few listenings to really hear.
hermoso y simple...
Wrap them up, I´ll take them home!!!!!
Thanks great song from rodgers and Hart. is this available on DVD in the UK
Thanks.
i LOVE susan egan!
the "Where or When" clip was from "The Rodgers & Hart Story: Thou Swell, Thou Witty", ruclips.net/video/yxruMAuctL0/видео.html
THANK YOU for that!
They had to have known, how cosmic this song is.
Very good , bye, Fred Italy, Milano, ciao.
I've passed this way before ?????
+Walter Lilly
.....the ultimate reincarnation story.....can we do it once again ? Yes, we will !
Jules
You are so right Jules This is a very cosmic song about Past Life memories.
This song is not about past loves, past lives or reincarnation. It’s about the feeling of deja’vu one might feel at a first intense romantic encounter. Read the lyrics. In the original form the last line is: “The mind plays tricks on you”.
Surfing around RUclips versions of this as I suddenly began singing it out of the blue this evening (deja vu moment?) and looking for a version approximating my range. These two are maybe a half-tone high for me. I notice the jazz and other treatments, even by greats like Ella Fitzgerald, just don't do the song justice 'cause it needs a musical singer's heft--stage volume I guess--to elevate the musical progression.
the ultimate message of re-incarnation...begging the question....will we do it all over again?
........can we ?
In my senior year of high school we did a production of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". It's not one of Rodgers and Hart's best, and that despite the genius of our best writer, Mark Twain.
Although the school did pay the meager royalties, the director decided to give the play itself little respect. She decided to keep two or three of the best songs, and then stole the creme de la creme from their other musicals. The fact that they didn't fit the plot didn't bother her. It might have been the greatest musical score of all time.
This masterpiece was included, and it actually does fit the plot pretty well. I played Merlin the magician, and I bought my makeup in the same places near Times Square where real Broadway actors bought theirs. I was very involved in the production in almost every aspect.
My passion was the theater, and I was very lucky to live only half an hour from the theater district. Merlin has no songs, but she decided that I might sing another masterpiece, "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", from "Pal Joey", their last show. The song could hardly relate less to the part. She decided, correctly, that my singing voice wasn't good enough.
I couldn't sing, but taking into account that I was a big fish in a tiny pond, I could ACT, which was resoundingly affirmed at curtain call time.
Lovely orchestra! Full sounding. But the best version of this song is in the film Alice doesn‘t live here anymore with Ellen Burstyn. It’s never left me
The English Patient version is the best 👌 ❤
Yes she was belle in the original broadway play, but not in the animated movie.
This sounds really cool as a boss a
Wh3n two soulmates meet each other again.
Do you have the rest of the special? Please post more ! :)
the "Where or When" clip was from "The Rodgers & Hart Story: Thou Swell, Thou Witty", ruclips.net/video/yxruMAuctL0/видео.html
Hey guys, Just wondering, from someone in the know, what are the character descriptions for the version of babes in arms with billie, dolores and mrs owen in?? Because I'm being ignorant as there are sooooo many versions of this show. But I have an audition for it and cant seem to get straight which character is which? Please HELPPP if you can....thankssss sooo much. :)
Is that Brian d'Arcy James?
I agree, hard beating this tune. Too many swing it, sorry, not my taste. Ballad form, the way it was written
hits it outta the park.
I have this song for my vocal lessons and I can't sing it. Seriously I just can't sing this song and I don't know why. It's terrible because I want to be able to.
They borrowed the set from The Honeymooners ... waiting for Norton to bust in haha!
This a Brit show ?
www.imdb.com/title/tt0181792/
fschnell
...Thank you , I see IMDB sez " USA " tho I'm still a little unsure .
American show. Originally broadcast on PBS Great Performances, and unfortunately available only on bootleg DVD's from a UK rebroadcast.
Not bad, not bad at all.
val is supposed to be 19. what is up with that?
cute :-)
Great rendition, but I think George Michael (RIP) does this song better than anyone. IMHO
This song should be haunting, this is goofy.
Brian never knows when to end a word. I enjoy him, but he's a dog with a bone. End words, you don't need to go vowel crazy.
Your right. After reading your comment I listened again. Brian just can't let go of a vowel. Still, a nice rendition of one of my top 10 songs.
In any event, thank god it wasn't like the Sinatra version where at the end the orchestra and Sinatra were competing with each to see who could be the loudest or who could drown out the others' voice.
+Being Glaun oh, hands down superior to sinatra.
Magnificent!!!