Ray Noble (17 December 1903 – 3 April 1978) was an English bandleader, comp… Read Full Bio ↴Ray Noble (17 December 1903 – 3 April 1978) was an English bandleader, composer, arranger, radio comedian, and actor.

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

Once in a While
Ray Noble Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

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 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.

Overall Meaning

The opening lines of the song, "Love is the sweetest thing, What else on earth could ever bring," sets the tone of the song as a paean to the power of love. The song's title itself suggests that 'love' is the most significant human experience. The chorus repeats this sentiment, with the second verse adding that "Love is the strangest thing" and it is as mysterious as the beauty of birdsong. The third verse then brings the universal appeal of love to the forefront, with the declaration that "Whatever heart may desire, Whatever fate may send, This is the tale that never will tire, This is the song without end."

The song is about the power of love and how it can make life better, no matter what else is going on. Love, according to the song, is not just one of the many things that can make us happy, but the one thing that is always there for us, even when everything else is falling apart. The repetition of the phrase 'Love's old story' throughout the song suggests that this is a timeless idea that has been spoken of throughout human history.

Line by Line Meaning

Love is the sweetest thing
Love is the absolute best thing that exists

What else on earth could ever bring
There is nothing else in the world that could bring such happiness

Such happiness to ev'rything
Love can bring immense joy to everything in life

As Love's old story.
The story of love has been told for ages and it still holds true today

Love is the strangest thing
Love can be quite peculiar and unpredictable

No song of birds upon the wing
Even the most beautiful melodies cannot compete with the sweetness of love

Shall in our hearts more sweetly sing
Love resonates more powerfully in our hearts than any other sound

Than Love's old story.
The story of love surpasses all other stories

Whatever heart may desire
No matter what one may wish for in their heart

Whatever fate may send
No matter what destiny may have in store

This is the tale that never will tire.
The story of love will never cease to be told

This is the song without end.
Love is a never-ending subject of music and story

Love is the greatest thing
Love is the most important and powerful force

The oldest yet, the latest thing
Love has been around since the beginning of time and will continue to be so

I only hope that fate may bring
I wish for destiny to bring

Love's story to you.
The beautiful story of love to touch your life

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, CARLIN AMERICA INC, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Written by: RAY NOBLE

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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