Paul Weston (born Paul Wetstein, March 12, 1912 – died September 20, 1996) … Read Full Bio ↴Paul Weston (born Paul Wetstein, March 12, 1912 – died September 20, 1996) was a US pianist, arranger, composer and conductor. Weston was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1933.

Weston became an arranger for Rudy Vallee's Fleischman Hour on radio. In 1936 he joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra as chief arranger, holding the position until 1940. He then became Dinah Shore's arranger/conductor and also worked freelance for the Bob Crosby Orchestra. His association with the Crosby unit took him to Hollywood and into film work, starting with Holiday Inn in 1941. Subsequent films as musical director include Holiday Inn (1942), Belle of the Yukon (1944) and Road To Utopia (1945). Weston arranged Ella Fitzgerald's album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook (1957), devoted to the music of Irving Berlin.

In 1942, songwriter Johnny Mercer, Glenn Wallichs and Buddy DeSylva formed Capitol Records and engaged Weston as musical director for the label. Weston also began working on radio with Mercer and Capitol songstress Jo Stafford. Stafford signed with Columbia Records in 1950 and Weston also joined Columbia. In 1952, Weston and Stafford married and had two children, Tim (born 1954) and Amy (born 1956).

Weston had a long career as a musical director for television including The Danny Kaye Show. He teamed up with his wife to produce a series of comedy albums based on Jo's ability to sing off-key deliberately while Paul murdered the piano accompaniment. They assumed the personas of "Jonathan and Darlene Edwards" for these musical travesties.

The couple retired from performing in the 1970s. Weston died on September 20, 1996, in Santa Monica, California.

All by Myself
Paul Weston Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I'm so unhappy
What'll I do?
I long for somebody who
Will sympathize with me
I'm growing so tired of living alone
I lie awake all night and cry
Nobody loves me
That's why

All by myself in the morning
All by myself in the night

I sit alone with a table and a chair
So unhappy there
Playing solitaire

All by myself I get lonely
Watching the clock on the shelf

I'd love to rest my weary head on somebody's shoulder

I hate to grow older
All by myself

Overall Meaning

The song All By Myself by Paul Weston depicts a person's feeling of loneliness and their desperate longing for companionship. The first verse conveys a sense of despair as the singer expresses their longing for someone who can empathize with their situation. The singer is tired of living alone and spends sleepless nights crying, feeling that nobody loves them. The chorus reiterates the idea of being all alone in the morning and at night, with only a table and a chair as company, while the singer plays solitaire, emphasizing the solitude they face. The second verse conveys the same feeling of loneliness, with the singer watching the clock, hoping for someone to rest their weary head upon and not wanting to grow older all by themselves.

The song portrays the universal feeling of loneliness, of wanting someone to share one's thoughts, dreams, and emotions with. The imagery of solitaire, an activity typically played alone, provides a poignant symbol of the singer's solitude and the sense of isolation they feel. The song also suggests the inevitability of aging and the feelings that accompany it, such as a sense of loss and being alone. Overall, the lyrics of All By Myself paint a heartbreaking picture of the desperation and sadness that living alone can bring.

Line by Line Meaning

I'm so unhappy
I'm feeling very sad and down.

What'll I do?
I don't know what to do to make myself feel better.

I long for somebody who Will sympathize with me
I wish I had someone who could understand and relate to how I'm feeling.

I'm growing so tired of living alone
I'm getting exhausted from being by myself all the time.

I lie awake all night and cry
I can't sleep and spend my nights crying.

Nobody loves me
I feel unloved and unwanted.

All by myself in the morning
I start my day alone with no one to talk to.

All by myself in the night
I end my day alone and lonely.

I sit alone with a table and a chair
I have no one to share meals or conversation with.

So unhappy there Playing solitaire
I play solitaire as a way to pass the time and distract myself from my loneliness.

All by myself I get lonely
I feel very lonely by myself.