Durante was born in New York City, the third of four children born to Mitch Durante (1855 –1929) and Margaret Durante (1858–1936). A product of working-class New York, Durante dropped out of school in the eighth grade to become a full-time ragtime pianist, working the city circuit and earning the nickname "Ragtime Jimmy," before he joined one of the first recognizable jazz bands in New York, the Original New Orleans Jazz Band. Durante was the only member of the group who didn't hail from New Orleans. His routine of breaking into a song to deliver a joke, with band or orchestra chord punctuation after each line became a Durante trademark. In 1920, the group was renamed Jimmy Durante's Jazz Band.
Durante became a vaudeville star and radio attraction by the mid-1920s, with a music and comedy trio called Clayton, Jackson and Durante. (Lou Clayton and Eddie Jackson, probably Durante's closest friends, often reunited with Durante professionally.) By 1934, he had a major record hit, his own novelty composition "Inka Dinka Doo," and it became his signature song for practically the rest of his life. A year later, Durante starred in the Billy Rose stage musical, Jumbo, in which a police officer stopped him while leading a live elephant and asked him, "What are you doing with that elephant?" Durante's reply, "What elephant?", was a regular show-stopper.
He began appearing in motion pictures at about the same time, beginning with a comedy series pairing him with silent film legend Buster Keaton and continuing with such offerings as The Wet Parade (1932), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942, playing Banjo, a character based on Harpo Marx), Ziegfeld Follies (1946), Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962, based on the 1935 musical) and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
When I Lost You
Jimmy Durante Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I lost the sunshine and roses
I lost the heaven of blue
I lost the beautiful rainbow
I lost the morning dew.
I lost the angel who gave me
I lost the gladness
That turned into sadness
When I lost you.
The lyrics of Jimmy Durante's song "When I Lost You" are profoundly melancholic and encapsulate the emotions of someone who has lost their significant other. Through the first verse, Durante mourns the loss of all the small things that once brought him joy, such as sunshine, roses, blue skies, and a beautiful rainbow. All these things seem meaningless now that he's lost his love. Furthermore, the reference to the morning dew seems particularly poignant since dew symbolizes new beginnings and fresh starts. Losing one's love seemingly leaves no room for renewal or new beginnings.
The second verse of the song centers around the loss of the singer's partner with whom he used to spend summers and winters. The idea of summer and winter being used as a metaphor for a whole year is thoughtful, and it emphasizes the loss the singer feels even greater. The line "I lost the gladness that turned into sadness when I lost you" is particularly striking since it describes the transformation of happiness into sadness that the singer experiences. It also shows that the singer used to be happy and deeply appreciative of what he had before he lost his love, and now life seems much harder.
Overall, the song "When I Lost You" tells the painful story of a person cherishing what they've lost while trying to move on with their life.
Line by Line Meaning
I lost the sunshine and roses
The happiness and beauty in my life disappeared when you left.
I lost the heaven of blue
The peaceful and serene feeling I had when you were around is now gone.
I lost the beautiful rainbow
The colorful and optimistic outlook on life that you brought me is now lost.
I lost the morning dew
The freshness and renewal in my life vanished when you were gone.
I lost the angel who gave me Summer the whole winter through
You were the one who brought warmth and joy into my life, even in the darkest days of winter.
I lost the gladness
The happiness and contentment I felt with you is now gone.
That turned into sadness
The happiness I felt with you has been replaced with deep sorrow.
When I lost you.
All of these things happened when you left, and I am now left with nothing but heartache.
Contributed by Landon I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.