There's a Long Long Trail A-Winding
 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2017) |
| "There's a Long, Long Trail" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | 1914 |
| Composer(s) | Alonzo Elliot |
| Lyricist(s) | Stoddard King |
"There's a Long, Long Trail" is a popular song of
In Elliott's own words to
Lyrics
THERE'S A LONG, LONG TRAIL
Nights are growing very lonely,
Days are very long;
I'm a-growing weary only
List'ning for your song.
Old remembrances are thronging
Thro' my memory
Till it seems the world is full of dreams
Just to call you back to me.
Chorus:
There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And the white moon beams.
There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.
All night long I hear you calling,
Calling sweet and low;
Seem to hear your footsteps falling,
Ev'ry where I go.
Tho' the road between us stretches
Many a weary mile,
I forget that you're not with me yet
When I think I see you smile.
Chorus:
There's a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingales are singing
And the white moon beams.
There's a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true;
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you.
(From the 1914 sheet music)
Recordings
 | This section contains a list of miscellaneous information. (June 2017) |
- James Reed and James F. Harrison (single) 1915
- George W. Ballard (Edison Diamond Disk) 1916
- John McCormack (single) 1917[2]
- Oscar Seagle, with the Columbia Stellar Quartette, November 14, 1917[3]
- Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sang it as a duet on radio in the 1950s.
- New Victory Band on One More Dance and Then (1978) as "Long, Long Trail"
- Roberts and Barrand on A Present from the Gentlemen (1992) as "Long, Long Tail" in "Great War Trilogy"
- Friends of Fiddler's Green on The Road to Mandalay (1994) as "The Long, Long, Trail"
- Sons of the Pioneers, 1941
- Harp and a Monkey recorded a version called "Long, Long Trail"' on their 2016 War Stories album, using the choruses and melody from the original song. The verses used a spoken word story by a woman from Rochdale recounting the story of her father being wounded in World War I.
- David Whitfield, the British singer sang the chorus of this song and sang three others on television in 1958
- Words of the chorus appear at the end of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement
Film
- There's a Long, Long Trail (1926) by H. Brian White. Black and white animated cartoon.
- Smilin' Through (1941). Sung by Jeanette MacDonald with a male chorus.
- Random Harvest (1942). Among the songs sung by a crowd celebrating the war's end early in the film
- For Me and My Gal (1942). Sung by The King's Men.
- Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944). Sung by officers and guests in Goodbye Dance scene.
- Three Came Home (1950)
- Dumb Patrol (1964). Music over opening titles in this Bugs Bunny short.
- Oh What A Lovely War (1969) by Richard Attenborough.
- Escape from Tomorrow (2013) chorus sung by Roy Abramsohn.
Television
- Schroeder performs the song on piano for Snoopy in It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
- Charlie Brown and his fellow summer campers sing the song around the campfire in It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown as the scene dissolves into the next morning's reveille.
- In Change of Command".
- Students at Bamfylde School sing the song in To Serve Them All My Days.
- Jack Ford (James Bolam) and Matt Headley (Malcolm Terris) get drunk and sing this together in an episode of When The Boat Comes In.
- Fictional character Jason Walton performs a portion of the song in The Waltons episode "The Hero".
- In an episode of The Lucy Show, Lucy and Viv sing the first two lines of the chorus in a failed attempt to entertain their children after the TV set breaks down.
- In episode five of The Crimson Field the VADs (Flora Marshall, Rosalie Berwick and Kitty Trevelyan) perform this song together at a concert organised by Flora.
- In "Death & Histeria", Season 3, Episode 5 of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis), Cec (Anthony Sharpe) and Dr. Samuels (Philip Quast) perform the song for Aunt Prudence (Miriam Margolyes).
Fiction
- In the 1934 novel ISBN 0-679-72325-0(pbk.), p. 39).
- In author Russell Kirk's short story "There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding".
- In John Dos Passos's novel, 1919, the lyric is featured in Newsreel XXII.
- In R.C. Sheriffs play, Journeys End, the song is sung in Act 3, Scene 3.
- Though not mentioned by name, the song is sung in the Amelia Peabody book He Shall Thunder in the Sky; it is identifiable by the lyric mentioned “long, long time of waiting”.
References
- ^ [1] [permanent dead link]
- ^ [2] [dead link]
- ^ "There's a long, long trail". Loc.gov. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
External links
- Note and audio at firstworldwar.com
- Sheet music for "There's a Long, Long Trail", M. Witmark & Sons, 1914.
