Eva Cassidy was the third of four children born to Hugh and Barbara Cassidy. From an early age, she displayed artistic and musical talent. When she was nine years old, her father taught her to play the guitar, and she began to play and sing at family gatherings.
While a student at Bowie High School, she did sing with a local band, called Stonehenge, and received considerable praise.
At the age of eighteen, Cassidy began her professional career, singing and playing guitar in a Washington, D.C., area band, called Easy Street. This band performed in a variety of styles, at weddings, corporate parties, and pubs.
During the summer of 1983, Cassidy sang and played guitar, six days per week, at Wild World, in Maryland. Her brother Dan was also a member of this working band.
Throughout the 1980s, Cassidy worked with a number of other bands, including the soul and Motown-oriented band The Honeybees, and the techno-pop band Characters Without Names, later called Method Actor.
During this period, Cassidy also worked as a propagator at a plant nursery and as a furniture painter in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1986, she met (bassist and recording engineer) Chris Biondo, who encouraged her and helped her find work as a backup singer for various acts. In 1990, Biondo and Cassidy hired the so-called "Eva Cassidy Band", composed of Chris Biondo, Lenny Williams, Keith Grimes and Raice McLeod, and she began to perform frequently in the Washington area.
In 1992, Biondo played a tape of Cassidy's voice for Chuck Brown. Best known as the "Godfather of Go-go", Brown is also a jazz and blues vocalist. This led to the first commercial recording of Cassidy, the duet album with Chuck Brown, The Other Side; which featured performances of classic songs such as "Fever", Billie Holiday's "God Bless the Child" and Cassidy's signature tune "Over the Rainbow". The album was released and distributed by Liaison Records, the label that also released Brown's Go-go albums. The duet CD attracted the attention of various record companies, but the offers all required Cassidy to pigeonhole herself within a single style (e.g., pop or jazz), something she adamantly refused to do.[citation needed]
In 1993 Eva Cassidy was first honored by the Washington area music community when she was awarded two Wammie awards for "Female Vocalist Roots/Traditional R&B" and "Vocalist Jazz/Traditional." The next year she was chosen to perform for the awards ceremony.
In January 1996, Cassidy recorded the album Live at Blues Alley, about which The Washington Post later commented that "she could sing anything and make it sound like the only music that mattered". [1] Cassidy was unhappy with her singing on the album, because she had a bad cold on the night of the recording; she began recording a studio album which was eventually released as Eva by Heart posthumously in 1997.
During a promotional event for the Live at Blues Alley CD in July 1996, Cassidy noticed an ache in her hips, which she attributed to stiffness from painting murals. The pain persisted, and, a few weeks later, Cassidy was diagnosed with melanoma. By the time of her diagnosis, the cancer had spread throughout her body. Cassidy's health rapidly deteriorated, and her final performance was in September 1996. At the performance, she had used a walker to reach the stage, sang "What a Wonderful World" in front of an audience of friends, and was subsequently admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital.[citation needed]
Eva Cassidy died on November 2, 1996, at the age of 33. She was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Washington Area Music Association.
if i give my heart
Eva Cassidy Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Will you still be by my side
Or will you be gone with the morning sun
Like a restless bird in flight
Take me in your arms
And let the love you see
Wash away your sorrow
And if I should tell you
Of the love that I feel
Will you still be there for me
Or will you awake to a faded love
Searching for freedom?s gain
Take me in your arms
And let the love you see
Wash away your sorrow
Let the morning be ours to keep
If I give my heart to you tonight
Will you still be by my side
Or will you be gone
With the morning sun
Like a bird who yearns to fly
The lyrics of Eva Cassidy’s song “If I Give My Heart” speak about giving one’s heart to someone and wondering if that person will stay with you or leave like a bird in flight. The song is a plea for reassurance and commitment, asking the person to take the singer in their arms and let the love they share wash away their sorrow. Through vulnerability and honesty, the singer asks if their love will still be there for them, even when the morning comes and the challenges of life may get in the way.
The motifs of nature and flight are used to convey the bittersweet and fragile nature of love. The comparison to a “restless bird in flight” highlights the unpredictable and fleeting nature of love, while the desire to “let the morning be ours to keep” speaks to the desire for permanence and security. The song is a reminder that love is not always easy and that there is a certain degree of risk involved in entrusting one’s heart to another person.
Line by Line Meaning
If I give my heart to you tonight
Asking if the person will still stay with her if she opens herself up to him
Will you still be by my side
Asking if the person will still stand by her, even after knowing her closely
Or will you be gone with the morning sun
Questioning the possibility of the person leaving in the morning, just like the sun rises every day
Like a restless bird in flight
Indicating the constant need for freedom like that of a bird's desire to fly away
Take me in your arms
Requesting the person to embrace her lovingly
And let the love you see
Asking the person to accept her love and return it
Wash away your sorrow
Hoping her love can heal the person's pain
Let the morning be ours to keep
Desiring to share a future with the person she loves
And if I should tell you
Asking if the person will still stay with her even if she expresses her love for him
Of the love that I feel
Referring to the profound emotions she has for the person
Will you still be there for me
Asking if the person will be supportive of her feelings and stay with her
Or will you awake to a faded love
Questioning if the person's love for her will diminish over time
Searching for freedom's gain
Speculating whether the person will eventually choose freedom over staying with her
Like a bird who yearns to fly
Comparing the person's desire for freedom to that of a bird
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: JOHN HAROLD PENNELL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
52Grace
Lyrics
If I give my heart to you tonight
Will you still be by my side
Or will you be gone with the morning sun
Like a restless bird in flight
Take me in your arms
And let the love you see
Wash away your sorrow
Let the morning be ours to keep
And if I should tell you
Of the love that I feel
Will you still be there for me
Or will you awake to a faded love
Searching for freedom?s gain
Take me in your arms
And let the love you see
Wash away your sorrow
Let the morning be ours to keep
If I give my heart to you tonight
Will you still be by my side
Or will you be gone
With the morning sun
Like a bird who yearns to fly
Jim Fryer
It just is more beautiful each time I hear her sing it.
Marie Hartman
A real and true lovesong. So fine and so nice. Eva is the most wonderful singer this world ever had. It’s such a pity that she’s no longer with us.
Todd Line
Our creator promises to bring her back!
52Grace
Lyrics
If I give my heart to you tonight
Will you still be by my side
Or will you be gone with the morning sun
Like a restless bird in flight
Take me in your arms
And let the love you see
Wash away your sorrow
Let the morning be ours to keep
And if I should tell you
Of the love that I feel
Will you still be there for me
Or will you awake to a faded love
Searching for freedom?s gain
Take me in your arms
And let the love you see
Wash away your sorrow
Let the morning be ours to keep
If I give my heart to you tonight
Will you still be by my side
Or will you be gone
With the morning sun
Like a bird who yearns to fly
villebunch
Oooh..thank you for the lyrics🙏 I can now sing too while playing my 🎸
Tchir P
What an amazing singer and beauty. She captivated my heart and gave me a reason to continue on. Too bad about her passing.
Crystal of Twin Star Enterprises
Thank you for sharing this with us.
Her music and her Spirit lives on eternally
❤
l l
I absolutely love love love this song.
Horsey Horselips 🐎
The Tears are Flowing Again
Bless You Eva Cassidy
With Love 💗 from NiagaraFalls USA 🇺🇸
RIP Angel 👼
Cary Borden
The most unearring pitch this world will ever hear! We all love you.. Eva Marie....