Forever And A Day
Song Details & Lyrics
© 2015
Lyricist: Charles Carson/Anne Coates
Genre: Jazz/Big Band
Theme: Love
Testimonial
“Wow! It sounds amazing! I wish you could have seen Dad’s face as he listened to it—if a picture paints a thousand words, his face only needed one - Joy! We both loved it. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Seeing that look on his face was worth more than anything. I can’t even think of anything that would be more precious. I will carry that look in my mind’s eye and treasure it for the rest of my life. Thanks so much for your kindness to Dad.”
Story Behind the Song
The lyricist of this song is a 96 year old World War II veteran and told us an amazing story. He called us one day, after seeing our article in the Philadelphia Inquirer and tried to get some details about our service. After about five minutes, he said he couldn’t hear anything over the phone and didn’t use email, so he would have his daughter contact us. The next day, we received a call from his daughter and she said ‘you won’t believe how excited my father is, I haven’t seen him this way in years!”. Turns out, he had been looking for a service like ours for over 75 years! In WWII, when he was just 18, he was stationed in Australia. The US Army had held a dance for the soldiers one evening and he decided to go. At the dance, he spotted a woman from across the room. He was literally fixated on her, went over, and asked her to dance. While they were dancing, there were some magical moments, and by the end of the song, he asked her to marry him—and she said YES! Later in the week, he was scheduled to ship out, and wrote her a poem. The one that has now become the basis for the lyrics of Forever and a Day. His wife passed away a few years ago, but he had been trying to put that poem to music since he was in the army.
The song was presented to the veteran on his 96th birthday with about 70 people in attendance. Buck’s daughter said that about a quarter of a way through the song, he went up to the DJ table, grabbed the mic, and started signing along with the song we produced for him! She said there wasn’t a dry eye in the house!
According to the veteran, this song was the culmination of the long love affair of a young American solider and his Australian sweetheart as told in the biography of Buck Carson which also bears the title Forever and a Day. It tells how they met at the Brisbandes beautiful Trocadera Ballroom, fell instantly in love, he proposed, she accepted, and 24 hours later, he was 1,000 miles away in a war zone that was designated as a place of no return. But he did return—three more times for short visits during the next four years. Five years later, she came to the US and they were married. Gradually, during the next many years, the song came to be and when it was finally finished, he would play it on the piano while she would sing it. She is gone now, but he song lingers on. It will be necessary to buy the book to get ‘the rest of the story’ ~ Buck Carson