#music, A Phenomenal Song for a Saturday Afternoon…

«The Windmills of Your Mind» has always been one of my favourite songs of all time. I don’t know why, perhaps because of its very mystical, intriguing and psychological lyrics paired with a phenomenal musical accompaniment. The song is mysterious and every time I hear «The Windmills of Your Mind» it brings different memories to my mind. The latest memories were of going to see Tom Jones last year in Valencia and he sang it…

I will leave you the lyrics here so that you can sing along…

[Verse 1]
Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning, running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind

[Verse 2]
Like a tunnel that you follow to a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving in a half forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind

[Verse 3]
Keys that jingle in your pocket, words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly? Was it something that you said?
Lovers walk along a shore and leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway or the fragment of a song
Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over, you were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning to the colour of her hair.

(This is the Noel Harrison version from the 1968 film The Crown Affair)

«The Windmills of Your Mind» was written by Michel Legrand. The lyrics written by American lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The French lyrics, under the title «Les Moulins de mon cœur«, were written by Eddy Marnay. The song was originally recorded by the English actor Noel Harrison in 1968. Legrand wrote a long Baroque melody and Alan and Marilyn Bergman added the stream of consciousness lyrics. The result was magic.

There are many versions of this song since the Noel Harrison version, which Andy Williams passed up. Then you have the Dusty Springfield version, a version by Sting, José Feliciano, Johnny Mathis, Barbara Streisand, Sinne EEg, Mel Tormé, and my personal favourite by Tom Jones…

CHEERS