Long Ago (and Far Away)


"Long Ago " is a popular song with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics about nostalgia by Ira Gershwin from the 1944 Technicolor film musical Cover Girl starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly and released by Columbia Pictures. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1944 but lost out to “Swinging on a Star”, from Going My Way. The song was published in 1944 and sold over 600,000 copies in sheet music in a year. In 2004 it finished #92 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
In the film it is sung by Rita Hayworth to Gene Kelly, and later briefly reprised by Jinx Falkenburg. Charting versions were recorded almost simultaneously by Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest, Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford, and Perry Como.
The Dick Haymes-Helen Forrest recording was released by Decca Records as catalog number 23317. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on April 27, 1944 and lasted 11 weeks on the chart, peaking at #2.
The Jo Stafford recording was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 153. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on May 4, 1944 and lasted 12 weeks on the chart, peaking at #6.
The Perry Como recording was released by RCA Victor as catalog number 20-1569. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on May 11, 1944 and lasted three weeks on the chart, peaking at #8.
The Bing Crosby recording was released by Decca Records as catalog number 18608. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on June 29, 1944 and lasted four weeks on the chart, peaking at #5. The flip side, "Amor," also charted, making this a two-sided hit. The Crosby version of "Long Ago " was used in the film Someone to Love.
Johnny Desmond sang it in German with Glenn Miller and the American Band of the AEF during World War II. It was used as psychological warfare aimed at the German populace and especially the Wehrmacht.
The song was used in the film Till the Clouds Roll By when it was sung by Kathryn Grayson.

Recorded versions