"Some Enchanted Evening"

Rosanno Brazzi singing
"Some Enchanted Evening" (1958)

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

1995 Album
"Some Enchanted Evening"
Piano by Emile Pandilfi

Rosanna Brazzi singing
(dubbed by Giorgio Tozzi)
"Some Enchanted Evening" (1958)

South Pacific
Movie directed
by Joshua Logan

Preface: For Song #50, I've selected Rosaano Brazzi singing "Some Enchanted Evening" (1958). The music is a show tune from the 1949 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical South Pacific. It has been described as "the single biggest popular hit to come out of any Rodgers & Hammerstein show." Andrew Lloyd Webber describes it as the "greatest song ever written for a musical". The song is a three-verse solo for the leading male character, Emile, in which he describes first seeing a stranger, knowing that he will see her again, and dreaming of her laughter. He sings that when you find your "true love", you must "fly to
her side, and make her your own, / Or all through your life you may dream all alone." Giorgio Tozzi's version finished at No. 28 on the 2004 American Film Institute list and television special, "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs", selecting the top 100 songs in American cinema. Lyrics.

Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger,
You may see a stranger across a crowded room,
And somehow you know, you know even then,
That somehow you'll see here again and again.

Some enchanted evening, someone may be laughing,
You may hear her laughing across a crowded room,
And night after night, as strange as it seems,
The sound of her laughter will sing in your dreams.

Who can explain it, who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try.

Some enchanted evening, when you find your true love,
When you hear her call you across a crowded room,
Then fly to her side and make her your own,
Or all through your life you may dream all alone.

Once you have found her, never let her go,
Once you have found her, never let her go.!

© Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com
August 23, 2023