None But The Lonely Heart

Titel

None But The Lonely Heart

Text & Musik

Musik von Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski (Op.6 No.6, 1869),
Originaltext von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1777-85),
englischer Text von Arthur Westbrook (ca. 1910)

The song information, presented in English, has been translated from the original German text and follows below.

Main Event Infos

Main Event Infos (English version)

Many of us may recognize these lines (or may have even memorized them):

Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen blühn / Im dunklen Laub die Goldorangen glühn / Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen Himmel weht / Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer steht / Kennst du es wohl? - Dahin! Dahin / Möchte ich mit dir, o mein Geliebter, ziehn. (Do you know the land where the lemons bloom / The golden oranges glow in the dark foliage / A gentle wind blows from the blue sky / The myrtle stands still and the laurel stands tall / Do you know it well? - There! There / I would like to go with you, oh my beloved.)

Indeed, these lines are from Goethe! In fact, the story of this Sinatra song begins with him.

These verses are from "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship" (1795/96), one of Goethe's most renowned works, which is considered the quintessential Bildungsroman of the 18th century. Goethe uses these lines to express the longing of his character Mignon for her homeland of Italy.

Goethe had started writing his novel a few years earlier - between 1777 and 1785 he penned a fragment of the novel that was only rediscovered in 1910 and has since been known as "Ur-Meister" (or "Wilhelm Meister's theatrical mission"). Even in this fragment, in Book VI, Chapter 7, there is another small "song" by Mignon, which in just a few lines addresses what is commonly referred to as "lovesickness". Mignon sings it alone to the accompaniment of a harp - in the completed novel "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship", it is a duet between Mignon and the harpist.

Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt,
Weiß, was ich leide!
Allein und abgetrennt
Von aller Freude,
Seh ich ans Firmament
Nach jener Seite.
Ach! der mich liebt und kennt,
Ist in der Weite.
Es schwindelt mir, es brennt
Mein Eingeweide.
Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt,
Weiß, was ich leide!

The text inspired a multitude of classical composers to adapt the piece into music throughout the 19th century - it would be exhaustive to list them all. Among the first was Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), who titled his melody "Sehnsucht" (WoO 134, composed in 1808). Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828), a composer of significant importance to the musical history of the “song” genre, created seven distinct melodic arrangements of Goethe’s verses. These can be found in his catalogue of works as “Sehnsucht” (D.310 in two versions, composed in 1815), “Lied der Mignon” (D.359 and D.481, both 1816), “Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt” (D.656, a choral arrangement, 1819), “Mignon und der Harpner” (op.62 no.1, D.877 no.1, a duet, 1826) and “Lied der Mignon” (op.62 no.4, 1826).

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) also embraced the song and set Goethe’s verses to music under both their German title and „Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt“ (“Only those who know longing”) (Op.6 no.6, 1869), and with a new Russian text by Lev Aleksandrovich Mey (1822-1862). Tchaikovsky’s melody quickly became the most recognized among the many musical adaptations, and it soon inspired translations of Goethe’s verses into English that were in harmony with the melody.

There were several of these as well – the most well-known was titled “None But The Weary Heart” and had already gained popularity in the 19th century:

None but the weary heart
can know this anguish,
alone and far apart
I faint and languish.
Upon the firmament
I gaze and wonder,
ah, from my heart's belov'd
I dwell asunder.
My spirit fails,
a burning fire consumes me.
None but the weary heart
can know this anguish.

At the dawn of the 20th century, Arthur Westbrook penned a slightly more contemporary English text titled "None But The Lonely Heart". Since then, Tchaikovsky's song, with Goethe's text, has predominantly been performed in English in this form (all texts are included in the appendix below, as always).

Frank Sinatra's fondness for classical music is well-documented, and both Schubert and Tchaikovsky were among his favorite composers. Therefore, it's plausible to assume that a young Sinatra was already acquainted with the melody and the lyrics. However, the song also became more intertwined with his professional life due to two other factors.

Firstly, in 1939, the musical film "Broadway Serenade" (directed by Robert Leonard) was produced in Hollywood, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Lew Ayres. In this film, Tchaikovsky's melody became somewhat of a musical motif and was featured in numerous scenes. Herbert Stothat, Edward Ward, and Gus Kahn (the latter also has songs in Sinatra's repertoire) wrote a new English text for the film, titled "For A Lovely Heart" (also known as "Broadway Serenade"). This group of authors is often mistakenly credited as the lyricists of "None But The Lonely Heart". They ensured that the song also found its way into the repertoire of many contemporary entertainment orchestras. This included Tommy Dorsey, who regularly performed the melody in an instrumental arrangement during the period (1940-42) when Frank Sinatra was his lead vocalist.

A second Hollywood film, however, brought the older song title "None But The Lonely Heart" back into the spotlight. This was the film of the same name (directed by Clifford Odets), released in 1944, starring Ethel Barrymore and Cary Grant. The film was based on Richard Llewellyn's novel, also titled "None But The Lonely Heart", set in London's East End. In one scene, Cary Grant "plays" Tchaikovsky's song on the piano (doubled by a musician, of course).

Considering all these elements, the time was likely ripe for Frank Sinatra to tackle the song himself. He did this for the first time in early January 1945 as part of his weekly CBS radio show (= Version #1), with an arrangement by his then-house arranger Axel Stordahl. A recording made during the rehearsal was released that same year on a special single as part of the American Army's "V(ictory)-Disc" program; today it is available on the V-Disc set from Columbia/Legacy.

Sinatra seems to have viewed it as a special challenge to record the demanding piece in the studio for Columbia Records. Between October 1946 and October 1947, no fewer than five different studio recordings were made within a year, all accompanied by Axel Stordahl and an orchestra with lush strings.

The first studio recording from October 15, 1946 (= version #2), made in the CBS Playhouse studio in Hollywood, remains completely unreleased (even unofficially) to this day.

Two weeks later, on October 31, Sinatra recorded two more versions at the same location (= versions #3a and #3b) - but these were also initially intended to remain unreleased. One of them (= #3b) "escaped" from the archives and appeared on an Australian Columbia single (see details below), which is still the only official release of this version and is therefore one of the most sought-after Sinatra collector's items ever. On the large Columbia box released in 1993, there is another take from the same day (= #3a) (released there for the first time).

A year later, at the end of October 1947, Sinatra revisited “None But The Lonely Heart” - this time in the legendary Liederkrantz Hall in New York City, famous for its unique acoustics for recordings and where Sinatra made most of his New York Columbia recordings. Compared to the earlier attempts, Stordahl had slightly altered his arrangement (or rather his adaptation of Tchaikovsky's melody). And again, two versions were created (=versions #4a and #4b).

The first version (= #4a), with a duration of approximately three and a half minutes, was utilized by Sinatra for his concept album "Dedicated To You", which was released in 1950 as a single box and LP. This rendition can also be heard on the extensive Columbia box.

Sinatra and Stordahl recorded a second, significantly slower (and therefore half a minute longer) take (= #4b), which Columbia subsequently released on the album "Come Back To Sorrento" in 1959 when they sought to compete with Sinatra's Capitol albums with a new LP compilation. This version is absent from the Columbia box, but was released on the CD edition of the album in Japan (although it is now out of print).

In February 1950, Sinatra performed the song again on the radio as part of his weekday show "Light-Up Time" on NBC (= version #5).

Subsequently, Sinatra only revisited "None But The Lonely Heart" once more – but he delivered a masterpiece that is unparalleled even in his ballad repertoire, which is certainly not lacking in highlights. Alongside Gordon Jenkins, who composed a new arrangement, he recorded the song in March 1959 for his Capitol album "No One Cares" (= version #6), which was then released in July 1959, remained on the Billboard album charts for nearly a year and a half, climbing to number 2.

If "No One Cares" (alongside "Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely" or "In The Wee Small Hours") is considered a "suicide song album" (a term coined by Sinatra himself as "suicide song"), then it certainly owes a significant part of that to the recording of "None But The Lonely Heart" that can be heard there.

One could even argue that in Sinatra's entire repertoire, whether in the studio or on stage, there is likely no moment in which he sang and interpreted a text so profoundly sad, so "hopelessly lost", so intensely emotional and yet with the most delicate phrasing and nuance, as in the lines at the end:

my senses fail...
a burning fire
devours me...
none but the lonely heart...
can know my saaaad-uh-nesssss...

Entire articles have already been written about these lines and this moment, about the fact that only someone who had at least once stood at such emotional depths of profound sadness and melancholy could sing like that - which undoubtedly applied to Sinatra, who once described himself as an "18-carat manic-depressive". And in 1959, the wounds of the ultimately failed relationship with Ava Gardner, the love of his life, were still very fresh.

So this remarkable Sinatra moment, in relation to this song, actually brings us back to the beginning, namely to Goethe, who expressed these very feelings in his verses in such an incomparably memorable and succinct way:
Es schwindelt mir, es brennt
mein Eingeweide.
Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt,
weiß, was ich leide!
(I'm dizzy, my insides are burning. Only those who know longing know what I'm suffering!)

Goethe was not just "good" (as Rudi Carrell sang), but he was a genius - and who, one could conclude with a wink, could have sung the verses of a genius better than another genius, namely Francis Albert Sinatra. Whose family, not by chance, came from Italy - the very land where the lemons bloom...

Do you know it? Sinatra knew it.

© Bernhard Vogel for Sinatra - The Main Event, 2007