Les Brown's version of ‘Twilight Time’ which was recorded in November 1944 and released in early 1945 as the B-side of ‘Sentimental Journey’, was the first recording of that song. While the A-side featured Doris Day's vocals, ‘Twilight Time’ was instrumental. The first vocal version of the song on record was released, also in 1945, by bandleader Jimmy Dorsey with Teddy Walters on vocals.
It has been recorded by numerous groups over the years. However, the best-known version of the song was recorded by the ‘Platters’ and became a Number 1 hit on both the pop singles and ‘R&B Best Sellers’ charts in 1958 in the United States. The song also reached Number 3 in the United Kingdom. In 1963, the Platters recorded a Spanish version of the song entitled ‘La Hora del Crepúsculo’, sung in a rhumba-style tempo.
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During the ’70s when the ‘Platters’ released their recording of this song, I had just joined the ‘West Yorkshire Probation Service’ and I was imbued with much more than a vocation to follow; it was more of a lifelong quest I perused. I possessed the strongest of convictions that my work for humanity would one day change the world I was a part of. Believe me when I tell you that it wasn’t particularly an arrogance in the belief that I then expressed, but I just knew that I was meant to be where I was and doing what I was doing, and with the types of people I worked with at the time. Everything inside me provided me with a conviction so strong, that the more difficult the problem behaviour I faced in a client who wanted to change their response pattern for the better, the greater was my level of enthusiasm that responded to the challenge and the more I was convinced that change for the better would be the result of our work.
readily and non-modestly acknowledge the importance of the pioneering work and research that I was engaged in. The particular areas of my specialism included those in the areas of uncontrolled anger- the involuntary expression of irrational fears- the emotional disturbance created by life-changing events and how one’s interpretation of such traumatic event determined the degree of emotional stability and instability. I needed to research the above areas in order to find and access a route to the brain via one’s imagination, relaxation and auto-suggestion that enabled one to change involuntary problem behaviour to non-problematic voluntary behaviour. However; I am equally in no doubt that it was the strength of my belief and conviction in carrying out this process that probably increased the likelihood of that work proving successful from the usual 10 per cent rating to around 40/50 per cent. I was essentially operating as a ‘hope provider’ and a ‘belief reinforcer’.
The people with the most problematic behaviour that often proved harder to change and improve were not the arsonists, the rapists, the robbers, the thieves, those who committed physical, psychological, mental. And sexual abuse on their victims; nor the hypochondriac, and those of limited social skills who found all manner of human interaction alarmingly frightening.
No! The most problematic behaviour that I found most difficult to successfully work with were people with depressive symptoms and people whose marriages had ended in divorce, whose partners had dumped them for another or who had experienced the protracted and unhealthy bereavement of a loved one.
All these people had one thing in common; they couldn’t sleep properly. Invariably they would be the ones for whom ‘the twilight hours’ were the saddest hours of the day. It was during these hours they mostly cried with feelings of loss and loneliness and sometimes bitter regret. Such sleep loss left them devoid of energy when tomorrow’s dawn arrived, and the repeated cups of coffee and smoked cigarettes that helped to keep them awake during the night to mentally remonstrate with themselves and remind themselves of sad things were again used to continue the process of continuous grieving during daytime hours also.
It was working with this group of people which eventually led me to invest in the production of my special relaxation tape, ‘Relax with Bill’. This tape was designed in pace of beat and rhythm to precisely mimic the rate of heartbeat one has at the point of ‘dropping off to sleep’. Key words used and auto-suggestive imagery are employed to mirror the sensations of ‘warmth’ and ‘heaviness’ that body muscles have during the stage of deep sleep. Consequently, use of the tape helps the listener and practising trainee to go to sleep, to sleep easier, longer and more productively.
The ‘Relax with Bill’ tape was freely given to thousands of people whom I taught to relax in individual and group training sessions over twenty-seven years as a Probation Officer and Group Worker, and up to 10,000 tapes were freely given out by me between 1970-2000. For the past twenty years, the 'Relax with Bill' tape has been freely accessible from my website, along with details of the types of people for whom it is unsuitable and the kind of situations in which it is dangerous to use.
Please bear in mind that though it was produced to the highest quality of its day initially,(costing £2000 to produce in 1972) that almost 50 years have passed since it was initially recorded. It is still used by many hundreds of people throughout the world who have converted it to more modern usage.
If you would like to use the tape, please follow the contra-indication instructions. The tape should not be used by pregnant women, people with a brain disorder or abnormality, or anyone whose blood pressure is usually too low (as repeated practice will significantly reduce blood pressure levels farther and too low a blood pressure level is as dangerous as too high a blood pressure level). Also, the tape should never be used when driving a vehicle or doing any precision work that requires full concentration for safety reasons.
To hear the tape freely, which can be downloaded and converted to more modern means of usage, simply access: http://www.fordefables.co.uk/relax-with-bill.html
The next time that you are tempted to get up during the twilight hours, why not try a practice with the tape then. Better still, get into the habit of going to bed with the tape, listening to it in bed and going to sleep with the words and images in your ears. This is self -hypnosis safely working, and at its most productive. Three months of daily/nightly practice should set you up and make you competent in relaxation for the rest of your life. In ratio to the investment of practice time, the benefits to a trainee’s health, sleep and performance level are enormous.
I have used the said tape daily for the past fifty years and while my sleeping hours usually exceed 8 or 9 hours each day, sometimes my high pain levels will wake me up and necessitate my sleep being taken in two chunks of time. It is important to also learn how to switch off mentally whenever relaxing. Most people of high energy levels who are capable of maximum output take 'power naps' of five minutes daily to recharge their mental and physical batteries. I also use the image of the tape to mediate my high pain levels that my body has experienced most of my life, along with using the imagery with any operation I have from time to time under a local anaesthetic. The tape is also helpful with ‘Anger Management’ and ‘Fear Reduction’ methods in establishing a state of homeostasis in the mind and body (equilibrium and stillness control).
Love and peace Bill xxx