"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:
“Our chaotic economic situation has convinced so many of our young people that there is no room for them. They become uncertain and restless and morbid; they grab at false promises, embrace false gods and judge things by treacherous values. Their insecurity makes them believe that tomorrow doesn’t matter and the ineffectualness of their lives makes them deny the ideals which we of an older generation acknowledged.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“A crazy man that found a cup,
When all but dead of thirst,
Hardly dared to wet his mouth
Imagining, moon-accursed,
That another mouthful
And his beating heart would burst.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“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)