Greatest Love Songs Ever: #4 “As Time Goes By”

By Tom Quiner, Board President, Pulse Life Advocates

The essence of this entire series of the 52 Greatest Love Songs Ever is perfectly encapsulated in a legendary scene from the 1942 movie, “Casablanca.” The fetching Ingrid Bergman (Ilsa) asks Sam, the piano player, 

“Play it Sam … play “As Time Goes By” …

… to which he reluctantly acquiesces. His reluctance is quickly validated when the club’s owner, Rick (Humphrey Bogart), storms out and chastises Sam:

“Sam, I thought I told you never to play … “

And then Sam tilts his head towards Ilsa, evincing a nuanced response from Rick that speaks volumes.

Just a few bars of a simple love song opened a wonderful Pandora’s box of beauty and pain for a bar owner in Morocco. We hear “As Time Goes By” all of 51 seconds, but for Rick it reminded him of the defining chapter of his life, a love affair that ended.

Despite the fact that “As Time Goes By” enjoyed less than a minute of screen time, the American Film Institute named it the 2nd best song in the history of film cinema.

That’s how powerful a love song is.

Herman Hupfield wrote the song a decade earlier with nostalgia-drenched lyrics that cemented “Casablanca” in movie lore as one of the greatest films ever:

“You must remember this,

A kiss is still a kiss,

A sigh is still a sigh.

The fundamental things apply,

As time goes by.”

Can you imagine Casablanca without these 51 seconds of music? 

No, impossible. It would be a different movie, perhaps even a forgotten movie.

The song’s message is timeless, and especially relevant in this age: the world changes fast in this technological era, but love remains timeless and ‘fundamental’ to our existence.

Nice.

Harry Nilsson sings “As Time Goes By”

For me, the best version of “As Time Goes By” is the richly romantic 1973 recording by the quirky Harry Nilsson (above). His velvety voice, accompanied by Gordon Jenkin’s lush arrangement, is the epitome of romance, one of the foundational songs of my courtship years with my lovely wife. 

To this day, she lets out a sigh when she hears it! (Actually, so do I!)

The only problem with Nilsson’s version is he leaves off the wonderful verse which sets the whole song up. Thankfully, Tony Bennett includes it in his big band arrangement of the song (below).

Tony Bennett sings “As Time Goes By”

Hupfield sums up our human existence, whether modern or ancient man, with his timeless, concluding assessment:

It’s still the same old story,
A fight for love and glory,
A case of do or die,
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.

What a great song! I love it!

If you’ve been tracking this series, I know I’m a broken record. But love is the antidote for abortion. Abortion is the opposite of love, because it does not welcome lovers, as time goes by. 

How tragic.

A simple love song puts us back in touch with our humanity, opening up our hearts to all the possibilities of human love.

If you agree, I encourage you to support Pulse Life Advocate’s pro-life outreach. Thank-you. Come back next week for #3 on our list of the 52 Greatest Love Songs Ever, a song that never, ever goes away.