Memory (song)
Encyclopedia
"Memory", often incorrectly referred to as "Memories", is a show tune
Show tune
A show tune is a popular song originally written as part of the score of a "show" , especially if the piece in question has become a "standard", more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context...

 from the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...

 musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...

sung by the character Grizabella
Grizabella
Grizabella is the "Glamour Cat" in the musical production Cats. She does not appear in T. S. Eliot's work Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, but she is a prominent character in the stageplay. It appears that she is the feline version of the woman mentioned in T.S...

, a one-time glamour cat who is now a shell of her former self. The song is a nostalgic remembrance of her glorious past and a declaration of her wishes to start a new life. Sung briefly in the first act and in full near the end of the show, "Memory" is the climax of the musical, and by far its most popular and well-known song.

The lyric, written by Cats director Trevor Nunn
Trevor Nunn
Sir Trevor Robert Nunn, CBE is an English theatre, film and television director. Nunn has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed musicals and dramas for the stage, as well as opera...

, was based on T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

's poems "Preludes" and "Rhapsody on a Windy Night". Lloyd Webber's former writing partner, Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...

 and contemporary collaborator Don Black submitted a lyric to the show's producers for consideration, although Nunn's version was favoured.

Lloyd Webber, fearing that the tune sounded too similar to a work of Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...

, and the opening - the haunting main theme - also resembles the flute
Alto flute
The alto flute is a type of Western concert flute, a musical instrument in the woodwind family. It is the next extension downward of the C flute after the flûte d'amour. It is characterized by its distinct, mellow tone in the lower portion of its range...

 solo in The Mamas & the Papas'
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...

 1965 song "California Dreamin'
California Dreamin'
"California Dreamin is a popular song by The Mamas & the Papas, first released in 1965. The song is #89 in Rolling Stones list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time...

", asked his father's
William Lloyd Webber
William Southcombe Lloyd Webber was an English organist and composer.-Life and career:Lloyd Webber was born in London...

 opinion. According to Lloyd Webber, his father responded, "It sounds like a million dollars!" So he based the haunting opening bars of the tune on Ravel's Bolero. The careful listener could also notice Memory sounds highly similar to the song Viņi dejoja vienu vasaru, composed by the latvian
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

 composer Imants Kalniņš
Imants Kalninš
Imants Kalniņš is one of the most important composers in the history of Latvian music. Having studied classical, as well as choral music, he has written six symphonies, several operas , oratorios, cantatas, choir songs, a lot of movie and theater music...

 for Elpojiet dziļi, a 1967 latvian
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

 movie.

Prior to its inclusion in Cats, the tune was ear-marked for earlier Lloyd Webber projects, including a ballad for Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...

 in Evita and as a song for Max in his original 1970s draft of Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard (musical)
Sunset Boulevard is a musical with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Based on the 1950 film of the same title, the plot revolves around Norma Desmond, a faded star of the silent screen era, living in the past in her decaying mansion on the...

.

In its original orchestration, the song's climax is in the key of D-flat major, the composer's favorite.

The arrangement of the lyrics in the show were changed after the initial recordings of the track, with the first verse beginning, "Midnight, not a sound from the pavement..." being used in only the brief, Act I rendition of the song and a new verse, "Memory, turn your face to the moonlight..." in its place for the Act II performance. Furthermore, the original second bridge section became the first and a new second bridge instated. Consequently, the arrangement of the lyric for a recording usually depends on whether the artist has played the role on stage.

Cover versions

"Memory" has been covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 by numerous musical acts.
  • Elaine Paige
    Elaine Paige
    Elaine Paige OBE is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, North London, Paige attended the Aida Foster stage school, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16...

    , who originated the role of Grizabella in the West End production of Cats, released a version of the song that was a Top 10 hit in the UK, peaking at #6 on the UK Singles Chart
    UK Singles Chart
    The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

     in July 1981. This version was re-recorded in 1998 with a slight lyrical alteration, which was included in the video release of the musical. This version made #36 in the UK in October of that year. Paige also recorded a version for her 1983 album Stages
    Stages (Elaine Paige album)
    Stages is an album by Elaine Paige, released in 1983 on the Warner Music and has been re-issued on CD. The album charted in the UK album charts at #2 in 1983....

  • Barbra Streisand
    Barbra Streisand
    Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

     recorded "Memory" for her 1981 album Memories
    Memories (Barbra Streisand album)
    Memories is an album released by Barbra Streisand in 1981. It is primarily a compilation of previously released material, but includes three newly recorded songs. The album was certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA, reaching #10 on the US charts. First released on Columbia, it was re-released under the...

    . When released as a single, Streisand's cover reached #52 on the Billboard Hot 100
    Billboard Hot 100
    The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

     chart and #9 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart
    Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks
    The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...

     in 1982. In the UK, this version peaked at #34 the same year.
  • Barry Manilow
    Barry Manilow
    Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...

     released a cover of "Memory" as a single in late 1982; this became the highest-charting version to date on the Billboard Hot 100 when it reached #39 in January 1983. Manilow's recording also made the Top 10 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart, reaching #8. This version is included on his album, Here Comes the Night.
  • The Shadows
    The Shadows
    The Shadows are a British pop group with a total of 69 UK hit-charted singles: 35 as 'The Shadows' and 34 as 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', from the 1950s to the 2000s. Cliff Richard in casual conversation with the British rock press frequently refers to the Shadows by their nickname: 'The Shads'...

     did an instrumental version in 1983 (it is featured on their album Moonlight Shadows).
  • Johnny Mathis
    Johnny Mathis
    John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...

     also recorded 'Memory'
  • Shirley Bassey
    Shirley Bassey
    Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...

     recorded 'Memory' for the B-side of her European single "That's Right" in 1984. In 1993 She re-recorded 'Memory' for her Sings the Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber
    Sings the Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber
    Sings the Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber is a studio album from Shirley Bassey released in 1993.This album saw Bassey briefly return to her old label EMI ; the album was issued by EMI on the Music For Pleasure Premier label. All songs on this album are from the pen of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber...

     album.
  • Mireille Mathieu
    Mireille Mathieu
    Mireille Mathieu is a French chanteuse, and pop singer. Hailed in the French press as the successor to Édith Piaf, she has achieved great commercial success, recording over 1200 songs in nine different languages, with more than 120 million records sold worldwide.-Childhood to early...

     recorded the song in French titled 'Nos Souvenirs' (Our Memories)
  • Sarah Brightman
    Sarah Brightman
    Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves and singing in the whistle register...

     (who recorded an Italian version of the song, "Piano")
  • Betty Buckley
    Betty Buckley
    Betty Lynn Buckley is an American theater, film and television actress and singer. She is a Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee.-Early life:...

     (first to play Grizabella on Broadway)
  • Celine Dion
    Celine Dion
    Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...

  • Petula Clark
    Petula Clark
    Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...

  • José Carreras
    José Carreras
    Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...

  • Paloma San Basilio
    Paloma San Basilio
    Paloma San Basilio is a Spanish singer. Although she was born in Madrid, at the age of 6 months the family moved to Sevilla , where she was raised till the age of 8...

     recorded her own version is Spanish titled 'Recuerdos'.
  • Rocío Banquells
    Rocío Banquells
    María del Rocío Banquells Nuñez , is a Mexican pop singer and actress, best known for her work on television, the stage and cinema of Mexico and Latin America. Her mezzo voice is one of the most versatile voices from Mexico...

     Spanish version (1990).
  • Jason Castro on the seventh season of American Idol
    American Idol
    American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...

  • Sandra Criado on the sixth season of Spain's Operación Triunfo
    Operación Triunfo
    Operación Triunfo is a reality-show talent contest which first aired on Spain's TVE network in 2001. A kind of cross between Pop Idol, Voces en Función, Star Search, and Big Brother, the show aimed to find the country's next solo singing sensation, putting a selection of hopefuls through their...

  • Kim Criswell
    Kim Criswell
    Kim Criswell is an American musical entertainer and actress.- Life and career :Criswell was born in Hampton, Virginia, but grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. After she graduated from high school, she studied musical theatre at the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music...

     on the album, Aspects of Andrew Lloyd Webber Volume 1
  • Kikki Danielsson
    Kikki Danielsson
    Ann-Kristin "Kikki" Danielsson is a Swedish country, dansband and pop singer. Sometimes, she also plays the accordion and she has also written some lyrics. She is also famous for yodeling in some songs. Kikki Danielsson gained her largest popularity in the Nordic region from the late 1970s until...

     (with lyrics in Swedish
    Swedish language
    Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

     by Olle Bergman as "Minnet") on her 1982 album Kikki
    Kikki (album)
    Kikki is an eponymous studio album by Swedish pop- and country singer Kikki Danielsson, released in 1982. The album peaked at #19 at the Swedish album chart, on 21 December 1982.In July 2009 the album was digitally released to iTunes.-Side A:-Side B:...

  • Barbara Dickson
    Barbara Dickson
    Barbara Ruth Dickson, OBE is a Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well" and "January February"...

     in 1985
  • Maria Friedman
    Maria Friedman
    Maria Friedman is an English actress working in television, musical theatre, and concerts. She has won three Olivier Awards for her stage work.-Early years:...

     in 1992
  • Lesley Garrett
    Lesley Garrett
    Lesley Garrett CBE is an English musician, broadcaster and media personality.- Early life :Garrett was born in the town of Thorne near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, into a musical family. She attended Thorne Grammar School, where she performed in school plays and musicals. As she grew up she...

  • Frances Yip
    Frances Yip
    Frances Yip Lai-yee is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer. She is best known for performing many of the theme songs for television series produced by TVB in the 1980s and early 1990s....

  • Howard Keel
    Howard Keel
    Harold Clifford Keel , known professionally as Howard Keel, was an American actor and singer. He starred in many film musicals of the 1950s...

     on his album, And I Love You So
  • Stephanie Lawrence
    Stephanie Lawrence
    Stephanie Lawrence was a British musical theatre actress.-Background:Stephanie Lawrence was born in Hayling Island, Hampshire, the daughter of a singer and classically trained dancer.She was from an early age close friends with another Famous Islander Peter Chilvers who in 1958 invented the...

    , who later played Grizabella in London, in 1988
  • Mark Rattray
  • Julian Lloyd Webber
    Julian Lloyd Webber
    Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...

     on the 2001 album Lloyd Webber Plays Lloyd Webber
    Lloyd Webber Plays Lloyd Webber
    Lloyd Webber Plays Lloyd Webber is a 2001 album by British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. For the album, the musician chose to interpret songs written by his older brother, the popular musical theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The album was recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra...

  • Menage, a Hi-NRG
    Hi-NRG
    Hi-NRG describes a form of high-tempo disco music as well as a genre of electronic dance music originating in the United States during the late 1970s...

     disco group (1983)
  • Simone Simons
    Simone Simons
    Simone Johanna Maria Simons is a Dutch coloratura mezzo-soprano singer who is the lead vocalist of symphonic metal band Epica.-Biography:...

     from the Dutch symphonic metal band Epica
    Epica (band)
    Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen subsequent to his departure from After Forever. They are known for their symphonic sound and the use of female vocals and male growls performed by Simone Simons and Mark Jansen, respectively. All six members write...

     (although in the song they just play piano)
  • Marti Webb
    Marti Webb
    Marti Webb is a musical actress from England, who appeared on stage in Evita, before starring in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one woman show Tell Me on a Sunday in 1980...

    , who played Grizabella in London and on two UK tours, on her 1989 album Performance
  • Jacinta Whyte
  • Susan Boyle
    Susan Boyle
    Susan Magdalane Boyle is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on the TV programme Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2009, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from ...

    , as a finalist in the third series of Britain's Got Talent
    Britain's Got Talent
    Britain's Got Talent is a British television talent show competition which started in June 2007 and originated from the Got Talent series. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's TalkbackThames and Simon Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The show is broadcast on ITV in Britain and TV3 in Ireland...

    , performing live on Britain's ITV network; later, when Boyle became an overnight sensation, the selection was planned to be on her debut album "I Dreamed a Dream
    I Dreamed a Dream
    "I Dreamed a Dream" is a song from the musical Les Misérables. It is a solo that is sung by the character Fantine during the first act. The music is by Claude-Michel Schönberg, with orchestrations by John Cameron...

    " but was not recorded (it is planned for a later release)
  • Dianne Pilkington
    Dianne Pilkington
    Dianne Lesley Pilkington is an English theatre actress and singer.- Life :Pilkington was born in Wigan. She trained at the Guildford School of Acting, graduating in 1997 with the Principal's Award....

     played the role in the recent UK National Tour (2006–2007)
  • Chrissie Hammond played Grizabella and closed the show in London in 2002 and played Grizabella on 2 UK National Tours (2003-2004 & 2007-2008).
  • Lama El-Homaissi in 2009.
  • John Barrowman
    John Barrowman
    John Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and...

     on his 2010 studio album John Barrowman
    John Barrowman (album)
    John Barrowman is the self-titled third studio album by musician and actor, John Barrowman. Released on March 1, 2010, the album debuted at #11 on the UK Top 40 Albums Chart. This was the highest chart rating of any of Barrowman's albums to date....

  • Delia Hannah, who played the role of Grizabella in 2010
  • Lea Salonga
    Lea Salonga
    Lea Salonga-Chien is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress from the Philippines well known for originating the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, for which she won the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World awards.She was the first Asian to play the roles of Éponine and...

    , who played the role of Grizabella in the Manila production of Cats
  • Lena Park
    Lena Park
    Lena Park, also known as Park Jung-hyun, , is a Korean-American R&B singer. Early in her life, Park showed talent for singing, mainly in the choir of her father's church in Downey with her siblings Brian and Uriah. She also learned to play saxophone and piano...

     sung a live version for Music TV in Japan, 2009.
  • Karita Mattila
    Karita Mattila
    Karita Marjatta Mattila is a leading opera soprano. She was born in Somero, Finland.Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco...

     performed the song frequently early in her career and recorded it on her album Wonderful (1995)
  • Frank Patterson
    Frank Patterson
    Frank Patterson was an internationally renowned Irish tenor following in the tradition of singers such as Count John McCormack and Josef Locke. He was known as "Ireland's Golden Tenor".- Early life :...

     on his album "Frank Patterson's Broadway"
  • Hayley Westenra
    Hayley Westenra
    Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand soprano, classical crossover artist, songwriter and UNICEF Ambassador. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached No. 1 on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide...

  • Jackie Evancho
    Jackie Evancho
    Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho is an American child singer described as a classical crossover artist. After entering some talent competitions, issuing an independent album, Prelude to a Dream, and attracting interest on YouTube, she gained wider popularity in 2010 with her performances in the...

  • Bonnie Langford
    Bonnie Langford
    Bonita Melody Lysette "Bonnie" Langford is an English actress, dancer and entertainer. She came to prominence as a child star in the early 1970s then she subsequently became a companion of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy's Doctor Who and has appeared on stage in various musicals such as Peter Pan:...

    , who performed in the London cast of Cats in the early 1980s as Rumpleteazer, on her 2000 album "Now"
  • Rose Jang
    Rose Jang
    Rose Jang is an acclaimed Korean-American pop opera artist who is well-known for singing operatic arias, musical and classic pop songs. She is the first Korean to release an album comprising operatic arias as well as hit musical songs. Her album is distributed by Mnet. Jang is PR ambassador for...

     for her 2010 "Songs of Hope" digital album.

  • A rendition of the song can also be found in the 2003 comedy film School Of Rock
    School of Rock
    School of Rock, also called The School of Rock, is a 2003 American musical comedy film directed by Richard Linklater, written by Mike White, and starring Jack Black...

    in which it is sung by Summer Hathway (Miranda Cosgrove
    Miranda Cosgrove
    Miranda Taylor Cosgrove is an American actress and singer-songwriter. Her career began at the age of three, where she participated in television commercials. Cosgrove's film debut was in 2003, as Summer Hathaway in School of Rock...

    ).
  • In the film Jersey Girl
    Jersey Girl (2004 film)
    Jersey Girl is a 2004 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Kevin Smith. It stars Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Raquel Castro, George Carlin, Jason Biggs, Jennifer Lopez and Will Smith...

    , all but Gertie, the main character's daughter, perform the song at a school talent show.
  • Another rendition of the song can be found in the 2009 film "Funny People
    Funny People
    Funny People is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written, co-produced and directed by Judd Apatow, and starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann. The film was released on 31 July 2009 in North America, and on 28 August 2009 in the United Kingdom. Funny People uses considerably more...

    ".
  • The most recent rendition of the song is in the 2011 film "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film)
    Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film)
    Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a 2011 comedy film based on Jeff Kinney's book of the same name. The film stars Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick. Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, and Peyton List also have prominent roles...

    ". The song is sung by the character of Patty Ferrell.

External links

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