"Young at Heart" is a pop standard, a ballad with music by Johnny Richards and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. The song was written and published in 1953, with Leigh contributing the lyrics to what was originally a Richards instrumental called "Moonbeam." Frank Sinatra was the first performer to record the song, which became a million-selling hit in 1953 (and spilling over with popularity into 1954). The song was such a hit that a movie that Sinatra was filming at the same time with Doris Day was renamed to the song title, and the song was included in the opening and closing credits of the movie, which was released as Young at Heart. The song has also been used on the soundtracks of other films, including It Could Happen to You, The Front, Sweet Dreams, and Space Cowboys (in a rendition by Willie Nelson).
Other performers who have recorded versions of "Young at Heart" include Jimmy Durante, Connie Francis, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Shawn Colvin, Rosemary Clooney, Bobby Vinton, Tom Waits, Bing Crosby, Barry Manilow, Landon Pigg and Vonda Shepard. The Cure incorporated verses from "Young At Heart" during concert performances of "Why Can't I Be You?" (widely available on bootlegs). Wild Man Fischer recorded an eccentric version that was included on The Rhino Brothers Present the World's Worst Records.
Famous quotes containing the words young, heart and/or sinatra:
“It wasn’t idealism that made me, from the beginning, want a more secure and rational society. It was an intellectual judgement, to which I still hold. When I was young its name was socialism. We can be deflected by names. But the need was absolute, and is still absolute.”
—Raymond Williams (1921–1988)
“The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or, again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things.”
—Carson McCullers (1917–1967)
“And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain,
I’ll state my case of which I’m certain.
I’ve lived a life that’s full, I traveled each and ev’ry highway,
And more, much more than this. I did it my way.”
—Frank Sinatra (b. 1915)