Hyperion Records

This lovely ballad by Eric Coates—with its gentle mood of introspection and longing—was written in 1926 . ‘Royden Barrie’, who wrote the words (and also the words to A brown bird singing) was in fact Rodney Richard Bennett, the father of Richard Rodney Bennett. Born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, Coates had over 130 published songs to his credit, most of them before he made an even deeper impression as the master of elegantly tuneful light orchestral music. Barrie inspired Coates to some of his most successful songs, as witness the easy melodic invention of this example. This song, too, enjoyed popularity in French translation.

from notes by Robert White © 1995