| Song No. 60 "Dear Hearts and Gentle People" |
| Words by Bob Hilliard Music by Sammy Fain |
| Verse 1.~~ I love those dear hearts and gentle people Who live in my hometown Because those dear hearts and gentle people Will never ever let you down. Verse 2. ~~They read the Good Book from "Fri." 'til Monday That's how the week-end goes I've got a dream house I'll build there one day With picket fence and rambling rose. Chorus: I feel so welcome each time that I return That my happy heart keeps laughing like a clown I love those dear hearts and gentle people Who live and love in my hometown. |
| America's beloved ballad writer Stephen Foster died alone and in poverty, having squandered his magnificent talent (and such money as he made from it) on drink. In the jacket pocket of his shabby suit was found a scrap of paper with the phrase "Dear friends and gentle hearts," perhaps the beginning of another imperishable Foster song like "Beautiful Dreamer" or "My Old Kentucky Home." The words appealed to Bob Hiliard so much when he heard of them in 1949 that he adapted them into a lyric, and Sammy Fain, who had already won Academy Awards for such tunes as "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" and "Secret Love," furnished the music for this song. Dinah Shore and Bing Crosby vied for top honors among a long list of successful recording artists.....Text from The Reader's Digest "Family Songbook of Faith and Joy." |