{"id":3787,"date":"2012-08-04T21:24:09","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T05:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=3787"},"modified":"2016-08-14T03:29:24","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T07:29:24","slug":"was-softly-as-i-leave-you-written-by-a-man-on-his-deathbed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/08\/04\/was-softly-as-i-leave-you-written-by-a-man-on-his-deathbed\/","title":{"rendered":"Was “Softly As I Leave You” Written by a Man on His Deathbed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here<\/a> to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n

MUSIC URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: “Softly as I Leave You” was written by a dying man as his wife slept at his bed side.<\/p>\n

The song, “Softly as I Leave You,” was a pretty big hit for a number of singers, most particularly Matt Monro and Frank Sinatra (both during the early 60s). A lot of other people have recorded it over the years, including Elvis Presley, who is actually quite important for this story. <\/p>\n

In any event, as the story goes, “Softly As I Leave You” was written by a dying man while his wife slept next to him. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nSoftly, I will leave you softly
\nFor my heart would break if you should wake and see me go
\nSo I leave you softly, long before you miss me
\nLong before your arms can beg me stay
\nFor one more hour or one more day
\nAfter all the years, I cant bear the tears to fall
\nSo, softly as I leave you there<\/p>\n

(softly, long before you kiss me)
\n(long before your arms can beg me stay)
\n(for one more hour) or one more day
\nAfter all the years, I cant bear the tears to fall
\nSo, softly as I leave you there
\nAs I leave I you there
\nAs I leave I you there<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As you can see, the lyrics pretty clearly show that it is a guy sneaking out on a woman he’s been in a long-term relationship with. It’s actually a fairly cowardly act (but it’s a beautiful song). I think, just based on the lyrics, that it is a bit of a stretch to read it as a story of a dying man with his wife beside him, but I guess it isn’t 100% counting such a reading out.<\/p>\n

But in any event, no, that’s not what happened. Some time before the song became a hit, composer Antonio De Vita wrote an instrumental song that he simply called “(Piano) Softly.” Popular pop Italian songwriter, Giorgio Calabrese, wrote Italian lyrics to the song, and it became a minor hit in Italy.<\/p>\n

Songwriter Hal Shaper “wrote” English lyrics, but what he really did was just translate the Calabrese lyrics.<\/p>\n

So it became a hit for a few artists.<\/p>\n

But neither De Vita, Calabrese nor Shaper were ever in said situation. Calabrese is even still alive [EDITED TO ADD: Calabrese has since passed away. He died in March 2016 – BC]!<\/p>\n

No, this story came about because of Elvis Presley, who started AND propagated this rumor to add some schmaltz to his performances of the song during the 1970s.<\/p>\n

\"elvis\"<\/center><\/p>\n

Here is what Elvis would say when he introduced the song… <\/p>\n

This next song, lady’s and gentlemen, is a song that’s been around for a long time. And uh, I’ve never recorded it. I know you’ve heard it, you know, by a lot of different people, but I’d like to give you the story behind the song. <\/p>\n

There’s a man who was dying in the hospital and his wife has been sitting by his bedside for 3 days and 3 nights. And somewhere on the 3rd day between midnight and day, she laid down beside him and dozed off to sleep. And he felt her when she dozed off to sleep and at the same time he felt himself start to die. And he didn’t want her to see him…. pass away. So he took his notepad from the side of the bed and he wrote….. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(cue song)<\/p>\n

So yeah, it is all malarky created by Elvis.<\/p>\n

The legend is…<\/p>\n

STATUS<\/span><\/u>: False<\/p>\n

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future urban legends columns! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far. MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: “Softly as I Leave You” was written by a dying man as his wife slept at his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[9],"tags":[1114,1111,1116,1112,190,1115,1117,1113],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-Z5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8238,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2016\/07\/29\/why-did-the-writer-of-love-me-tender-credit-his-wife-for-writing-the-song-instead-of-himself\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":0},"title":"Why Did the Writer of “Love Me Tender” Credit His Wife for Writing the Song Instead of Himself?","date":"July 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. 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MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Frank Sinatra kept the Manchurian Candidate under wraps for years in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Movie Legends Revealed"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/manchurian.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3871,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2012\/08\/22\/did-henrik-ibsen-write-an-alternate-happy-ending-to-a-dolls-house\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":3},"title":"Did Henrik Ibsen Write an Alternate Happy Ending to A Doll’s House?","date":"August 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about plays and playwrights and whether they are true or false. THEATER URBAN LEGEND: Henrik Ibsen wrote an alternate happy ending to A Doll's House. A Doll's House was published by Henrik Ibsen in 1879. Here is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grab Bag Legends"","img":{"alt_text":"henrik_ibsen_av_eilif_peterssen_1895","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/henrik_ibsen_av_eilif_peterssen_1895.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7485,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2017\/12\/19\/judy-garland-have-yourself-merry-little-christmas-too-depressing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3787,"position":4},"title":"Was ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ Almost Too Depressing to Exist?","date":"December 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to see all the Movie urban legends featured so far. 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A Frank Zappa album was given a Parental Advisory\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Archives"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8303,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions\/8303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}