"Nobody Came."

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Have you ever been lonely, have you every been blue?

When I hear this song title I always think of Elvis. In fact I thought for a long time that it was ‘his’ song, he certainly made it popular, but …..

“Have You Ever Been Lonely” was published in 1933

and I have this copy in my ‘Music Chest’.

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Peter DeRose composed the music, and George Brown wrote the lyric in which an admirer asks forgiveness of a sweetheart and wonders if she has ever felt the way he does now. In addition to Henry Hall with the BBC Dance Orchestra, other bands like Paul Whiteman, Ted Lewis and Ray Noble assured its popularity on the Big Band circuit.

But it was in the 60s when Jerry Vale revived it that it became a staple among country artists. Chet Atkins, Della Reese, Patsy Cline, Slim Whitman, and Jim Reeves are among the best covers of the song.

A bit later in 1966, Paul McCartney wrote his wonderful elegy for Eleanor Rigby, who picked up the rice in the church where a wedding has been - lived in a dream - then she died in a church and was buried along with her name - nobody came.

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Did you know that today, the number of people living on their own has doubled since the 1970s, and that most of them are (us) older people.

Of course a lot of us are very happy living on our own. Some they will say that they like their routine and their independence and not having to worry about whether someone else wants to watch a different TV channel, or like me, not even wanting a telly.

Retirement was a big jolt.

All those familiar work mates and friends.

There, one day.

Gone, the next.

Everyone promises to stay in touch, and then doesn’t.

I can always recognise a lonely person when you meet them in shops or on buses: they never stop talking, chatting away about this and that as though they’d not spoken to anyone in a week. Probably haven’t.

In this all-laughing, twittering world it’s assumed that we can all find a comforting voice of friendship somewhere. For increasing numbers that just isn’t so.

Most need interaction with others to feel fully alive.

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Another couple of disturbing facts:-

Nearly half the meals in Britain……

……are now eaten alone?

Nearly half the ‘ready meals’ in Europe…..

……. are consumed in the UK?

And another little song which I remember singing years ago,

but don't have a copy of is.....

Of all the saddest words

That I have ever heard;

The saddest is the story

Told me by a bird.

He had spent about and hour,

Chatting with a flower

and here is the tale the flower told.

I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,

an onion patch, an onion patch.

I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch

and all I do is cry all day.

Boo hoo, boo hoo.

The air is so strong it takes my breath away.

I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,

Oh won't you come and play with me?

There, that's cheered us up a bit.

Have a nice day.

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