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The Very Thought of You

Written by Ray Noble

Last updated on August 4, 2020


Album This song officially appears on the Duets: An American Classic Official album.

From Wikipedia:

The Very Thought of You” is a pop standard published in 1934, with music and lyrics by Ray Noble. In addition to Noble’s own hit recording of the song with his orchestra, featuring the vocals of Al Bowlly, there was also a popular version recorded that same year by Bing Crosby. A decade later, the song was on the charts again in a version by Vaughn Monroe. In 1946, Luis Russell recorded the song, which went to number three on the Most-Played Juke Box Race Records charts.

Doris Day sang the song in the 1950 movie Young Man with a Horn, a fictional tale partly based on the life of early jazz trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke. An instrumental version of the song is featured in the movie Casablanca and is played in Rick Blaine’s club in the scene where Sascha kisses Rick Blaine on the cheek just before Ilse Lund and Victor Lazlo enter Rick’s for the first time.

In 1961, “The Very Thought of You” was on the charts again, in a rhythm & blues version recorded by Little Willie John, and three years later a rock and roll version by Ricky Nelson reached #26 on the Billboard chart, lasting 7 weeks in the Hot 100 and crossing to #11 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.

There have also been numerous recordings of the song by jazz and pop standards artists, including Nancy Wilson, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Nat “King” Cole (in his 1958 album of the same name), Carmen McRae, Billie Holiday, the Hi-Lo’s and Elvis Costello; and a blues version on Albert King’s Born Under a Bad Sign album. More recently, Tony Bennett and Paul McCartney recorded a duet version of the song for the former’s album, Duets: An American Classic. […]


Lyrics

The very thought of you and I forget to do

The little ordinary things that everyone ought to do

I'm living in a kind of daydream

I'm happy as a king

And foolish though it may seem

To me that's everything


The mere idea of you, the longing here for you

You'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you

I see your face in every flower

Your eyes in stars above

It's just the thought of you

The very thought of you, my love


The mere idea of you, the longing here for you

You'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you

I see your face in every flower

Your eyes in stars above

It's just the thought of you

The very thought of you, my love

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Paul McCartney writing

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Dolly • 5 years ago

Is there a way to get a karaoke version


The PaulMcCartney Project • 5 years ago

Hi Dolly, have a look on Google / Youtube and search for "the very thought of you karaoke", and you will see some results - enjoy :)


Connie J Rumpf • 3 years ago

This is really beautiful. This is the sweetest performance of Pauls I've seen, and Tony is always humble.


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