"Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" is a popular

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

, introduced by

Art Jarrett Arthur L. Jarrett Jr. (July 20, 1907 – July 23, 1987) born to stage actor and playwright Arthur L. Jarrett Sr. (1884–1960). Art Jr. was an American singer, actor, and bandleader in the 1930s and 1940s. Early career Near the end of the 19 ...

in the 1933 film '' Sitting Pretty.'' The music was written by Harry Revel, the lyrics by

Mack Gordon Mack Gordon (born Morris Gittler; June 21, 1904 – February 28, 1959) was an American composer and lyricist for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times in 11 years, including five consecutive years betwee ...

. The song was originally published in

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

and there were charted versions in the USA that year by

Eddy Duchin Edwin Frank Duchin (April 1, 1909 – February 9, 1951), commonly known as Eddy Duchin or alternatively Eddie Duchin, was an American jazz pianist and bandleader during the 1930s and 1940s. Early career Duchin was born on April 1, 1909 in Cambri ...

(No. 1 in the charts), Guy Lombardo (#2),

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

(#5), and Meyer Davis (#6). Since then, there have been many covers of the song, including Henry Hall's 1933 cover, Al Bowlly with

Ray Noble Raymond Stanley Noble (17 December 1903 – 2 April 1978) was an English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor; he also performed in the United ...

and his Orchestra (1933),

Matt Monro Matt Monro (born Terence Edward Parsons, 1 December 1930 – 7 February 1985) was an English singer. Known as "The Man with the Golden Voice", he performed internationally during his 30-year career. AllMusic has described Monro as "one of the m ...

(1957), Dorothy Lamour (1957),

Michael Holliday Norman Alexander Milne, known professionally as Michael Holliday (26 November 1924 – 29 October 1963) was a British singer, who was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He had a number of chart hits in the UK, including two number one si ...

(1959),

Max Bygraves Walter William Bygraves (16 October 1922 – 31 August 2012), best known by the stage name Max Bygraves (adopted in honour of Max Miller), was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, s ...

(1960), and a version by Frankie Avalon for the 1960 album ''Summer Scene.''

included the song in a medley on his album ''

On the Sentimental Side ''On the Sentimental Side'' was intended to be a long-playing vinyl album and it was recorded in June 1962 by Bing Crosby for his own company, Project Records at United Recording, Hollywood. The album is in a “sing-along” style and Crosby o ...

'' (1962).

In popular culture

* An instrumental version is used in the 1934 Popeye cartoon '' A Dream Walking. * The

version of the song was used as a plot point in the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

film ''

Lady in White ''Lady in White'' is a 1988 American supernatural mystery film directed, produced, written and scored by Frank LaLoggia, and starring Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, Alex Rocco and Katherine Helmond. The plot follows a schoolboy in 1962 upstate New ...

''. * The Bing Crosby version of the song was used in the end credits of '' A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge''. * The Bing Crosby version of the song was used in '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1981) * The Bing Crosby version of the song was used in ''

The Locusts The Locusts, also known as the Peter Eltinge House, is a 19th-century brick Federal style, Federal architectural style, style house built in 1826 located on Plains Road in the New Paltz (town), New York, Town of New Paltz, New York (state), New Yo ...

'' (1997) * The Gene Austin version of the song was featured in the 1999 film '' The Green Mile.'' * A version of the song performed by Sunny Gale was featured in the 2009 film '' Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire''. * In the fan film ''The Confession of Fred Krueger'', the character of Freddy sings it to himself, while starting a fire. * In the

Laverne & Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' (originally ''Laverne DeFazio & Shirley Feeney'') is an American sitcom television series that played for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' star ...

episode: "Why Did the Fireman..." (Season 5, Episode 18 – original air date: February 4, 1980), Laverne sings the first line of this song when thinking about her fireman boyfriend, who dies in a fire just before proposing marriage to her.

References

External links

A haunting song....
- An article on the background of the writing of the song, and careers of the writers Songs with music by Harry Revel Songs with lyrics by Mack Gordon 1933 songs 1933 singles Bing Crosby songs Al Bowlly songs Guy Lombardo songs Songs about dreams {{Pop-standard-stub