Today’s song is almost 100 years old and was first released in 1924. ‘I’ll See You in my Dreams’ was written by Isham Jones with lyrics by Gus Khan. Originally recorded by Isham Jones and the ‘Ray Miller Orchestra, it charted for 16 weeks during 1925, spending seven weeks at Number 1 in the U.S. Other popular versions in 1925 were by Marion Harris, Paul Whiteman, Ford and Glenn; and Lewis James; with three of these four reaching the ‘Top 10’. I bet you didn’t even realise that there were ‘charts’ and ‘Top Ten Lists’ 95 years ago!
The song was chosen as the title song of the 1951 film ‘I’ll See You in my Dreams’; a musical biography of Kahn. Popular recordings of it were made by many leading artists including Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Mario Lanza, Tony Martin, The Platters, Andy Williams, Eddie Cochran, Pat Boon, Joe Brown, and (wait for it), even Jerry Lee Lewis!
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The singer Joe Brown has made this song his signature tune over the years and I recently saw a television interview with him when he told the presenter that every performance he carries out across the land always witnesses the audience yelling out for Joe to sing this song. Joe said,” I don’t seem able to settle them down until I’ve sung this favourite number of theirs”.
Over my lifetime I have always dreamed in a way that has led to the dream remaining in my mind each time I wake up. My imagination has always been vivid, but I can say that I managed to make my dreams work for me in the past thirty years.
As a young child of the 1940s, most children visited the Picture House (known as the cinema today) every Saturday morning matinee. Although it was only a few pence entrance fee which most paid, many of us would nip to the toilet and open the fire escape door to admit three or four of our friends free of charge. It was a common sight then to see one boy go to the toilets during the film and five minutes later, four or five boys come out of the toilets. The saved money would then be used to buy ice cream wafers during the intermission to share out. Every Saturday night I would dream of the Cowboy and Indian film I’d seen that morning. The dream would be so lifelike that I’d frequently wake up in a nightmare with a Sioux arrow through my throat. Sometimes though, I would free the beautiful woman tied to the stake and fight my way out of the Sioux village followed by screaming warriors showering me with a rain of arrows.
As I moved into my teens and I started to lie about my age and sneak into ‘X-rated’ films, I still dreamt vividly during my sleep. However, my dreams had now changed in content and were of the more romantic and seductive type. I no longer woke up in a fright stranded in a desert, soaking in intense sweat and dying of thirst. Instead of waking up from my Cowboy or Indian character as an imaginative eight-year-old, gasping for water in the dry, dry desert, my new 15-year-old dreams were more in keeping with a testosterone driven teenager and were invariably of the wetter and warmer variety.
Between the ages of twenty-nine and sixty, I operated as one of the country’s leading Relaxation Trainers, and during the hundreds of groups I managed over the years, I used imagery in my relaxation scenes to help trainees reduce their tension and stress levels.
In 1989 I started writing books for children and had well over fifty books published between 1990-2002. Over £200,000 was given to charitable causes from the sale profits of these books. All future book sale profits go to charitable causes in perpetuity. Over 800 famous names and local, national and international celebrities from film, stage, screen, sport, church, politics and royalty read from my books to school children in Yorkshire libraries and schools. Naturally, such publicity and almost daily association with big names made me a large fish in the small Pond of West Yorkshire. So much mention in the press and media brought me to the attention of several very famous people who personally contacted me; the late Princess Diana and the late President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.
After I had written my first three books and had them published, they became so popular that the late Princess Diana called me personally at home and requested that I send her two copies of my children’s books, ‘Douglas the Dragon’ and ‘Sleezy the Fox’ to read to the 7 years and 9-year-old Princes Harry and William at their bedtime. It is nice to know that two of my children’s stories probably helped the two princes to get off to sleep and dream of the main characters in my books, especially one who will become a future King of England.
‘Douglas the Dragon’ and ‘Sleezy the Fox’ is available in either e-book format or paper back copy from www.smashwords.com or www.amazon.com or www.lulu.com
Around the New Millennium, ‘dreams’ were to become a prominent feature in my life again. I had become an established children’s author by 1990, and by 2000, I’d had over fifty of my children’s books published and had raised a considerable amount of money for charity through their sales. I recall writing a book that the late Nelson Mandela read, and then personally phoned me at my home address (via a Home Office link) me to congratulate me on the three African stories I had incorporated in ‘Afro-Indian Dreams Trilogy’. Mandela described the trilogy of stories as being ‘wonderful’. The relevance of this story is that all three stories relied heavily on the dreams of their main characters.
Following this literary praise from Nelson Mandela which was broadcast as a brief feature news item on ‘News 24’, I finished up spending three years working in conjunction with the ‘Minister of Education and Youth Culture in Jamaica’. I also worked in close liaison with the Custos (Mayor) of Trelawney, writing another couple of books that were placed on the Jamaican curriculum and which were sold to raise over £10,000 for much-needed educational funds for the thirty-two poorest schools in Trelawny, Jamaica (the old slave capital). I also established a ‘Transatlantic Pen-Pal Project’ between sixty-four schools (32 Jamaican schools and 32 Yorkshire schools). This project witnessed 32 Jamaican schools of black pupils write monthly to a pen pal in one of 32 Yorkshire schools of predominant white pupils. The purpose of the project was to acquaint all 64 schools with the different cultures and thereby reduce the likelihood of racial prejudice being practised by either black or white pupils in the future.
‘Afro-Indian Dreams Trilogy’ is available in either e-book format or paper back copy from www.smashwords.com or www.amazon.com or www.lulu.com with all book-sale profit going to charitable cause in perpetuity. The book is for any child aged 10 years and over, or any adult. The tree stories in the book are about Africa, India and Jamaica. I would highly recommend this book.
So, you see, dreams have always played a significant role in my life from childhood to adult to old man. Until the next post, ‘I’ll see you in my dreams’.
I dedicate my song today to the best neighbours a couple could ever have; Brian and Veronica Morehouse. Over the past three or more years, Brian has been so helpful in loaning his muscle to my lovely wife Sheila at our allotment whenever tasks have arisen that my health condition prevents me from being able to safely do. And whenever Veronica visits her husband’s allotment during the warmer spring and summer months, she always pops into our allotment nearby for a chatter. Brian kindly gave Sheila a lovely ukulele many months ago to practise playing on. If you listen to the background of my song today, Brian and Veronica, you will be able to discern how well she is doing! If she carries on like this, she will soon be joining me daily.
Love and peace. Bill xxx
The song was chosen as the title song of the 1951 film ‘I’ll See You in my Dreams’; a musical biography of Kahn. Popular recordings of it were made by many leading artists including Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Mario Lanza, Tony Martin, The Platters, Andy Williams, Eddie Cochran, Pat Boon, Joe Brown, and (wait for it), even Jerry Lee Lewis!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The singer Joe Brown has made this song his signature tune over the years and I recently saw a television interview with him when he told the presenter that every performance he carries out across the land always witnesses the audience yelling out for Joe to sing this song. Joe said,” I don’t seem able to settle them down until I’ve sung this favourite number of theirs”.
Over my lifetime I have always dreamed in a way that has led to the dream remaining in my mind each time I wake up. My imagination has always been vivid, but I can say that I managed to make my dreams work for me in the past thirty years.
As a young child of the 1940s, most children visited the Picture House (known as the cinema today) every Saturday morning matinee. Although it was only a few pence entrance fee which most paid, many of us would nip to the toilet and open the fire escape door to admit three or four of our friends free of charge. It was a common sight then to see one boy go to the toilets during the film and five minutes later, four or five boys come out of the toilets. The saved money would then be used to buy ice cream wafers during the intermission to share out. Every Saturday night I would dream of the Cowboy and Indian film I’d seen that morning. The dream would be so lifelike that I’d frequently wake up in a nightmare with a Sioux arrow through my throat. Sometimes though, I would free the beautiful woman tied to the stake and fight my way out of the Sioux village followed by screaming warriors showering me with a rain of arrows.
As I moved into my teens and I started to lie about my age and sneak into ‘X-rated’ films, I still dreamt vividly during my sleep. However, my dreams had now changed in content and were of the more romantic and seductive type. I no longer woke up in a fright stranded in a desert, soaking in intense sweat and dying of thirst. Instead of waking up from my Cowboy or Indian character as an imaginative eight-year-old, gasping for water in the dry, dry desert, my new 15-year-old dreams were more in keeping with a testosterone driven teenager and were invariably of the wetter and warmer variety.
Between the ages of twenty-nine and sixty, I operated as one of the country’s leading Relaxation Trainers, and during the hundreds of groups I managed over the years, I used imagery in my relaxation scenes to help trainees reduce their tension and stress levels.
In 1989 I started writing books for children and had well over fifty books published between 1990-2002. Over £200,000 was given to charitable causes from the sale profits of these books. All future book sale profits go to charitable causes in perpetuity. Over 800 famous names and local, national and international celebrities from film, stage, screen, sport, church, politics and royalty read from my books to school children in Yorkshire libraries and schools. Naturally, such publicity and almost daily association with big names made me a large fish in the small Pond of West Yorkshire. So much mention in the press and media brought me to the attention of several very famous people who personally contacted me; the late Princess Diana and the late President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela.
After I had written my first three books and had them published, they became so popular that the late Princess Diana called me personally at home and requested that I send her two copies of my children’s books, ‘Douglas the Dragon’ and ‘Sleezy the Fox’ to read to the 7 years and 9-year-old Princes Harry and William at their bedtime. It is nice to know that two of my children’s stories probably helped the two princes to get off to sleep and dream of the main characters in my books, especially one who will become a future King of England.
‘Douglas the Dragon’ and ‘Sleezy the Fox’ is available in either e-book format or paper back copy from www.smashwords.com or www.amazon.com or www.lulu.com
Around the New Millennium, ‘dreams’ were to become a prominent feature in my life again. I had become an established children’s author by 1990, and by 2000, I’d had over fifty of my children’s books published and had raised a considerable amount of money for charity through their sales. I recall writing a book that the late Nelson Mandela read, and then personally phoned me at my home address (via a Home Office link) me to congratulate me on the three African stories I had incorporated in ‘Afro-Indian Dreams Trilogy’. Mandela described the trilogy of stories as being ‘wonderful’. The relevance of this story is that all three stories relied heavily on the dreams of their main characters.
Following this literary praise from Nelson Mandela which was broadcast as a brief feature news item on ‘News 24’, I finished up spending three years working in conjunction with the ‘Minister of Education and Youth Culture in Jamaica’. I also worked in close liaison with the Custos (Mayor) of Trelawney, writing another couple of books that were placed on the Jamaican curriculum and which were sold to raise over £10,000 for much-needed educational funds for the thirty-two poorest schools in Trelawny, Jamaica (the old slave capital). I also established a ‘Transatlantic Pen-Pal Project’ between sixty-four schools (32 Jamaican schools and 32 Yorkshire schools). This project witnessed 32 Jamaican schools of black pupils write monthly to a pen pal in one of 32 Yorkshire schools of predominant white pupils. The purpose of the project was to acquaint all 64 schools with the different cultures and thereby reduce the likelihood of racial prejudice being practised by either black or white pupils in the future.
‘Afro-Indian Dreams Trilogy’ is available in either e-book format or paper back copy from www.smashwords.com or www.amazon.com or www.lulu.com with all book-sale profit going to charitable cause in perpetuity. The book is for any child aged 10 years and over, or any adult. The tree stories in the book are about Africa, India and Jamaica. I would highly recommend this book.
So, you see, dreams have always played a significant role in my life from childhood to adult to old man. Until the next post, ‘I’ll see you in my dreams’.
I dedicate my song today to the best neighbours a couple could ever have; Brian and Veronica Morehouse. Over the past three or more years, Brian has been so helpful in loaning his muscle to my lovely wife Sheila at our allotment whenever tasks have arisen that my health condition prevents me from being able to safely do. And whenever Veronica visits her husband’s allotment during the warmer spring and summer months, she always pops into our allotment nearby for a chatter. Brian kindly gave Sheila a lovely ukulele many months ago to practise playing on. If you listen to the background of my song today, Brian and Veronica, you will be able to discern how well she is doing! If she carries on like this, she will soon be joining me daily.
Love and peace. Bill xxx
