Wiley was born in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. While still in her early teens, she left home to pursue a singing career with the Leo Reisman band. Her career was temporarily interrupted by a fall while horseback riding. Wiley suffered temporary blindness, but recovered, and at the age of 19 was back with Reisman again, with whom she recorded three songs: "Take It From Me," "Time On My Hands," and her own composition, "Got The South In My Soul." She sang with Paul Whiteman and later, the Casa Loma Orchestra. A collaboration with composer Victor Young resulted in several songs for which Wiley wrote the lyrics, including "Got The South in My Soul" and "Anytime, Anyday, Anywhere," the latter an R&B hit in the 1950s.
In 1939, Wiley recorded eight Gershwin songs on 78s with a small group for Liberty Music Shops. The set sold well and was followed by 78s dedicated to the music of Cole Porter (1940) and Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart (1940 and 1954), Harold Arlen (1943), and 10" LPs dedicated to the music of Vincent Youmans and Irving Berlin (1951). The players on these recordings included Bunny Berigan, Bud Freeman, Max Kaminsky, Fats Waller, Billy Butterfield, Bobby Hackett, Eddie Condon, Stan Freeman, Cy Walter, and the bandleader Jess Stacy, to whom Wiley was married for a number of years. These influential albums launched the concept of a "songbook" (often featuring lesser-known songs), which was later widely imitated by other singers.
Wiley's career made a resurgence in 1950 with the much admired ten-inch album Night in Manhattan. In 1954, she opened the very first Newport Jazz Festival accompanied by Bobby Hackett. Later in the decade she recorded two of her finest albums, West of the Moon (1956) and A Touch of the Blues (1957). In the 1960s, Wiley retired, although she acted in a 1963 television film, Something About Lee Wiley, which told her life story. The film stimulated interest in the singer. Her last public appearance was a concert in Carnegie Hall in 1972 as part of the New York Jazz Festival, where she was enthusiastically received.
Easy Come Easy Go
Lee Wiley Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
If love must have it's day, then
As it came, let it go.
No, no remorse, no regrets
We should part exactly as we met
Just easy come, easy go.
But now that it ends, let's be friends
And not two strangers
Easy come, easy go, here we are,
So darling au revoir
It's easy come, easy go.
The lyrics of Lee Wiley's song "Easy Come Easy Go" talk about the fleeting nature of love and relationships. The song starts by saying that if love must have its day, then it should be allowed to come and go freely. The singer then goes on to say that there should be no regrets or remorse when love ends, and the two should part ways just as easily as they got together. The lyrics suggest that there was no thought of the consequences when they entered into the relationship, yet they must now accept the consequences of the end of that relationship.
The second verse of the song reminds us that the two involved were once strangers who never thought of the dangers of romantic entanglements, but now that things have ended, they should part as friends instead of strangers. There is a sense of acceptance in the lyrics, that even though things did not work out as they had hoped, they are willing to move on and let go of what they had.
Overall, "Easy Come Easy Go" is a song about accepting the impermanence of relationships and learning to let go when things end.
Line by Line Meaning
Easy come, easy go, that's the way,
Life is unpredictable and sometimes things don't last forever, we can't control it.
If love must have it's day, then
If love has to end, then we have to make peace with it.
As it came, let it go.
We should let go of things as easily as we receive them.
No, no remorse, no regrets
We should have no regrets or guilt about the end of the relationship.
We should part exactly as we met
We should end the relationship in the same manner as we started - on good terms.
Just easy come, easy go.
The end should be uncomplicated and easy for both parties involved.
We never dreamt of romantic dangers
We didn't anticipate the end of the relationship when we began it.
But now that it ends, let's be friends
Even though the romantic relationship has ended, we can still maintain a platonic friendship.
And not two strangers
We shouldn't treat each other like strangers.
Easy come, easy go, here we are,
The relationship came and went quickly, and now we're left with each other.
So darling au revoir
Goodbye my love.
It's easy come, easy go.
Again, the end of the relationship should be easy and uncomplicated.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Thomas Carl Keifer
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Rena1934
this is one of my favorite songs by Lee, her version is just AMAZING! Recorded on March 17th, 1934 =)
Bear not the blues
Oh my! This is better than any contemporary ones!
Matt
i like al bowlly's version a bit better but i agree, ths is a nice version :D
Baron Strong
I love this song. Reminds me of my childhood.
joe ok
Full- on- Gorgeous, had only heard Al Bowlly's version before...this one is charming also xx
Donald Gordon
I HEAR THIS AND MY HEART ACHES FOR WHAT WAS AND IS NO MORE TRIUMPH
Anarchist Atheist
This is the original or first version of this song ever released. It has been released by different musicians over the years since 1934. But this is the first.
John Stag
Splendid
Bob Haspel
Benny Goodman is on clarinet, I have this album with the Johnny Green orch.
David Wallace Sanders
Easy Come, Easy Go (with Johnny Green's Orchestra, March 17, 1934, issued)