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Dinah Washington & the Belford Hendricks Orchestra - While We're Young (Mercury Records 1960)

2,336 views · Published 6 September 2017 · 2:35 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: RoundMidnightTV · 2017 · Music

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"While We're Young" is a 1943 song with music composed by Alec Wilder and Morty Palitz, to lyrics by Bill Engvick, which was popularized by Don Cherry, Tony Bennett and other artists.[1] Wilder quoted his Algonquin neighbour, James Thurber, as saying that Engvick's lyrics to “While We're Young” was “the finest piece of English writing he knew”.[2] The lyric Thurber refers to begins:

"We must fulfill This golden time When hearts awake So shyly, Softly.
Songs were made to sing While we're young. Ev'ry day is spring While we're young..."

The song was included by Art Garfunkel as a bonus track in the Barnes & Noble-exclusive edition of his 2007 tribute album to the Great American Songbook, Some Enchanted Evening.

Dinah Washington (born Ruth Lee Jones; August 29, 1924 – December 14, 1963) was an American singer and pianist, who has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s". Primarily a jazz vocalist, she performed and recorded in a wide variety of styles including blues, R&B, and traditional pop music, and gave herself the title of "Queen of the Blues". She was a 1986 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Dinah's accompanied by Joe Zawinul (piano); Belford Hendricks (arranger, conductor).  Recorded in New York City, 1960. (Mercury Records)

Songs were made to sing while we're young
And ev'ry day is Spring yea while we're young

None can refuse, time flies so fast
Too dear to lose yea and too sweet yes
To sweet to last

Though it may be just for today
Just to share our love we must while we may

So blue the skies, of sweet surprise
Shines before our eyes while we're young

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