Noble wrote both lyrics and music for many popular songs during the British dance band era known as the "Golden Age of British music", notably for his longtime friend and associate Al Bowlly, including Love Is The Sweetest Thing, Cherokee, The Touch of Your Lips, I Hadn't Anyone Till You and his signature tune, The Very Thought of You. Noble also played a radio comedian opposite American ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's stage act of Mortimer Snerd and Charlie McCarthy, and American comedy duo Burns and Allen, later transferring these roles from radio to TV and popular films.
Raymond Stanley Noble was born at 1 Montpelier Terrace in the Montpelier area of Brighton, England. A blue plaque on the house commemorates him. Noble studied at the Royal Academy of Music and in 1927 won a competition for the best British dance band orchestrator that was advertised in the Melody Maker music magazine. In 1929, he became leader of the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, an HMV Records studio band that featured members of many of the top hotel orchestras of the day.
The most popular vocalist with Noble's studio band was Al Bowlly, who joined in 1930. During this time Noble co-wrote Turkish Delight, By the Fireside and Goodnight, Sweetheart. The latter song was a number one hit for Guy Lombardo in the United States charts.
Noble moved to New York City in 1934. The Bowlly/Noble recordings with the British New Mayfair Dance Orchestra on HMV had achieved popularity in the United States and Noble had several number one hits on the US pop singles charts:
Love is the Sweetest Thing, 1933, no.1 for 5 weeks;
Old Spinning Wheel, 1934, no.1 for 3 weeks;
The Very Thought of You, 1934, no.1 for 5 weeks;
Isle of Capri, 1935, no.1 for 7 weeks;
and with the American band:
Paris in the Spring, 1935, no.1 for 1 week.
As well as Al Bowlly, Noble also took his drummer Bill Harty to USA and asked Glenn Miller to recruit American musicians to complete the band. Glenn Miller played the trombone in the Ray Noble orchestra which performed Glenn Miller's composition Dese Dem Dose as part of the medley Dese Dem Dose/An Hour Ago This Minute/Solitude during a performance at the Rainbow Room in 1935. The American Ray Noble band had a successful run at the Rainbow Room in New York City with Bowlly as principal vocalist. The act included ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.
Although Noble was no singer, he did appear twice as an upper crust Englishmen on two of his more popular New York records, 1935's Top Hat and 1937's Slumming on Park Avenue. Ray Noble was also an arranger who scored many record hits in the 1930s: Mad About the Boy (1932), Paris in the Spring (1935) and Easy to Love (1936),
Ray Noble and his orchestra appeared in the 1937 film A Damsel in Distress with Burns and Allen. Noble played a somewhat "dense" character who was in love with Gracie Allen. His catchphrase was "Gracie, this is the first time we've ever been alone together." Al Bowlly returned to England in 1938 but Noble continued to lead bands in America, moving into an acting career portraying a stereotypical upper-class English idiot.
Ray Noble played the piano but seldom did so with his orchestra. In a movie short from the 1940s featuring Ray Noble and Buddy Clark (one of his most popular band singers), Ray Noble is asked by the announcer to play one of his most popular hits. He sits down at the piano and plays Goodnight, Sweetheart.
Ray Noble provided music for many radio shows like The Chase and Sanborn Hour, The Charlie McCarthy Show and Burns and Allen and also guest appeared in some of their films. He worked with Bergen for nearly fifteen years, playing the foil to McCarthy and the slow-witted Mortimer Snerd, and his orchestra appeared with Edgar Bergen in the 1942 film Here We Go Again. He also did the orchestration for the 1942 Lou Gehrig biopic The Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper. Noble's last major successes as a bandleader came with Buddy Clark in the late 1940s.
The ventriloquist TV show ended in the mid-1950s, and Noble retired to Santa Barbara, California. In the late 1960s Noble relocated to Jersey in the Channel Islands. In March 1978 he flew to London for treatment of cancer, and later died of the disease at a London hospital.
In 1987 Noble was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
In 1996 Noble was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In 2005 The Very Thought of You, recorded by Ray Noble and His Orchestra on Victor in 1934, received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award
In 1938 the Noble composition You're So Desirable was recorded by Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson
The Noble and Bowlly 1934 recording of Midnight, the Stars and You was prominently featured on the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining
In 1990 the Noble composition You're So Desirable was recorded by Robert Palmer
In the 1990 film, The Russia House, protagonist 'Barley' Blair, played by Sean Connery, is portrayed as having once played in the "great Ray Noble's Band"
The Noble and Bowlly classic 1931 song Guilty was included on the 2001 film soundtrack of Amélie
Love Is the Sweetest Thing
Ray Noble Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
What else on earth could ever bring
Such happiness to ev'rything
As Love's old story.
Love is the strangest thing
No song of birds upon the wing
Shall in our hearts more sweetly sing
Whatever heart may desire
Whatever fate may send
This is the tale that never will tire.
This is the song without end.
Love is the greatest thing
The oldest yet, the latest thing
I only hope that fate may bring
Love's story to you.
The first stanza of Ray Noble's song "Love Is The Sweetest Thing" establishes love as a powerful force; one that has the ability to bring much happiness to everything it touches. The lyrics imply a sense of awe and wonder at the extraordinary transformative power of love; love is able to turn something bitter into something sweet. The words reflect a sense of appreciation for the wonderful gift that love represents. The phrase "Love's old story" conveys the idea that love has been written about and experienced since time immemorial, lending it an almost mythical quality.
The second stanza contrasts the ethereal qualities of love with more grounded realities; the singer emphasizes that, in the midst of the joy that love brings, it is still something that exists in the real world. The idea that love is "the strangest thing" implies that it can never be fully understood, even as it warms our hearts and touches our souls. The mention of birds and their sweet songs emphasizes the natural, even primal, aspect of love, as well as its ability to inspire art and beauty.
Line by Line Meaning
Love is the sweetest thing
Love is the most delightful feeling in the world.
What else on earth could ever bring
There is nothing else in the world that could make us feel as happy as love does.
Such happiness to ev'rything
Love brings immense joy to everything around us.
As Love's old story.
As the story of love has been told for ages.
Love is the strangest thing
Love is a complex feeling that is hard to define.
No song of birds upon the wing
No melody or bird song can match the sweetness of love.
Shall in our hearts more sweetly sing
It sings in our hearts more melodiously than any other song.
Than Love's old story.
As the story of love is timeless and beautiful.
Whatever heart may desire
Whatever one's heart may long for.
Whatever fate may send
Whatever fate may have in store for us.
This is the tale that never will tire.
The story of love is never tiring, no matter how often it is told.
This is the song without end.
The song of love has no end, it continues forever.
Love is the greatest thing
Love is the most powerful and profound feeling.
The oldest yet, the latest thing
Love has been around for ages and will continue to be relevant forever.
I only hope that fate may bring
I pray that fate will bring us the chance to experience the story of love.
Love's story to you.
To experience the story of love with you.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CARLIN AMERICA INC
Written by: Ray Noble
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@mohamedalaa5431
Love is the sweetest thing
What else on earth could ever bring
Such happiness to everything
As Love's old story.
Love is the strangest thing
No song of birds upon the wing
Shall in our hearts more sweetly sing
Than Love's old story.
Whatever heart may desire
Whatever life may send
This is the tale that never will tire.
This is the song without end.
Love is the strongest thing
The oldest yet, the latest thing
I only hope that fate may bring
Love's story to you.
@johngy-brongen
Love is the sweetest thing
What else on earth could ever bring
Such happiness to ev'rything
As Love's old story.
Love is the strangest thing
No song of birds upon the wing
Shall in our hearts more sweetly sing
Than Love's old story.
Whatever hearts may desire
Whatever life may send
This is the tale that never will tire.
This is the song without end.
Love is the strongest thing
The oldest yet, the latest thing
I only hope that fate may bring
Love's story to you.
Love is the sweetest thing
@smbsuperfan271
9 decades later, we need this kind of music to make a resurgence.
@MrDaiseymay
THE BBC, USED TO, GRUDGINGLY, HAVE A COUPLE OF ONE HOUR SLOTS OF THIS ERA OF MUSIC ON RADIO 2, ( FORMALLY, THE LIGHT PROGRAMME) BUT NO MORE.
@Wolfganger
No chance
@smbsuperfan271
@@Wolfganger do you say no chance because you do not wish for it, or because you don't believe it is possible
@john111257
Ed Sheeran please
@bradmorgan8561
I love this genre of music, it's proper music when music was actual music. Nothing like today's crap, todays tone deaf people only like sh!t with a fast or slow tempo, they love the sound of chipmunks. Music has died fully since the late 90s 💯. You will never hear another amazing artist that ain't auto tuned or using someone else's song and lyrics. The 21st century is full of losers.
@osocool1too
88 years later and this beautiful number is still as enchanting to the ear as it was in 1932.
imagine loving couples dancing to this at the time, as my parents did. 😇👍
@rerechan8440
Hope you're always fine~♡
@MrDaiseymay
That's exactly the image I just saw. What an era that was. such contrasts, anxiety over no work, the threat of War brewing, yet it was the age of Beauty too, in the Art Deco era, who's styling touched EVERYTHING, plus modern music like this.
@rondunn4336
Quality never dates.