Samuel George "Sammy" Davis, Jr. (born December 8, 1925 in Harlem, New York… Read Full Bio ↴Samuel George "Sammy" Davis, Jr. (born December 8, 1925 in Harlem, New York; died May 16, 1990 in Beverly Hills, California) was a Grammy Award winning singer, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actor, dancer, multi-instrumentalist and only black member of Frank Sinatra's The Rat Pack. Davis began his career with his father and uncle in the Will Mastin Trio and he toured nationally with them, only leaving due to military service. He became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciro's after the 1951 Academy Awards, became a successful recording artist and then made his first film performances later that decade.

Davis, Jr. was born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, to Elvera Sanchez, a dancer, and Sammy Davis, Sr., an African-American entertainer. The couple were both dancers in vaudeville. As an infant, he was raised by his paternal grandmother. When he was three years old, his parents split up. His father, not wanting to lose custody of his son, took him on tour. Sammy Davis Jr. claimed that his mother was Puerto Rican, however the 2003 biography In Black and White alleges that he made this claim due to the political sensitivities of the 1960s (during the Cuban Missile Crisis), and that his mother was born in New York of Cuban descent rather than in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

As a child he learned how to dance from his father, Sammy Davis, Sr., and his "uncle" Will Mastin, who led the dance troupe his father worked for. Davis joined the act as a young child in 1928 and they became the Will Mastin Trio. Throughout his long career, Davis included the Will Mastin Trio in his billing.

Mastin and his father had shielded him from racism. Snubs were explained as jealousy. But during World War II, Davis served in the United States Army, where he was first confronted by strong racial prejudice. As he said later, "Overnight the world looked different. It wasn't one color anymore. I could see the protection I'd gotten all my life from my father and Will. I appreciated their loving hope that I'd never need to know about prejudice and hate, but they were wrong. It was as if I'd walked through a swinging door for eighteen years, a door which they had always secretly held open.

Lonely Is The Name
Sammy Davis Jr. Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Lonely Is The Name
That I answer to,
And crying is the game
Since I'm losing you;
I'll never be the same
With-out your love.

Believe me

Sorry is the role
That you make me play,
Tormented is the soul
That is mine today,
I'm lost beyond control
With-out your love.

Missing is the kiss,
Absent is the sigh,
Gone, the look of love
You wore.
Was it all a dream?
Was it all a lie?
Don't you love me
Any-more?

Just tell them

Lonely is the name
It will always be
And crying is the game,
'Til you're back with me;

I'll never be the same
With-out your love.

Overall Meaning

In Sammy Davis Jr.'s song "Lonely Is the Name," he expresses the heart-wrenching pain of losing someone he loves. "Lonely Is the Name / That I answer to" refers to the emptiness he feels without his loved one in his life. "Crying is the game / Since I'm losing you" highlights the tears he sheds due to the loss of his loved one, and he believes that he will never be the same without their love.

He also talks about the guilt that he feels for the end of the relationship in the line "Sorry is the role / That you make me play." He is tormented by his soul and lost beyond his control without his love. He misses the kiss, the sigh, and the look of love his partner had before. Sammy Davis Jr. wonders if it was all just a dream, or if everything they had was a lie. He pleads with his loved one to tell him whether they still love him or not.

In the end, he accepts his loneliness and crying as his fate until his loved one comes back to him. Lonely is the name that will always be with him, and he will never be the same without his love. The song beautifully portrays the pain of losing love and the struggle to come to terms with it.

Line by Line Meaning

Lonely Is The Name
I'm consumed by loneliness all the time.

That I answer to,
I feel identified with loneliness, and it's become an inherent part of me.

And crying is the game
I cry always as it's the only thing that gives me a moment of relief.

Since I'm losing you;
I'm struggling to cope since I'm losing you, and it's breaking me apart.

I'll never be the same
Your absence has left an irreparable void in me, and I won't ever recover without your love.

With-out your love.
Your love was the source of my happiness and stability, and without it, I feel lost and incomplete.

Sorry is the role
I'm forced to apologize for actions that led to our separation even though it wasn't my fault entirely.

That you make me play,
You're making me a victim and forcing me to atone for things I cannot control.

Tormented is the soul
My soul is restless and tormented by the thought of losing you, and it's affecting me deeply.

That is mine today,
I'm experiencing intense emotional pain that's weighing heavily on me.

I'm lost beyond control
I'm unable to come to terms with the reality of the situation and feel lost, confused, and helpless without you.

Missing is the kiss,
I'm missing the tenderness and sweetness of your kiss and how it made me feel.

Absent is the sigh,
I'm missing how you used to make me sigh in romantic bliss, and that's now absent.

Gone, the look of love
The loving expression that I was accustomed to seeing when you look at me is now gone, and that fact is heartbreaking.

You wore.
Your love was apparent, and it was something I cherished deeply.

Was it all a dream?
I'm wondering if it was all a big dream and if any of it truly happened.

Was it all a lie?
I'm questioning if what I felt was real and whether it was all a lie.

Don't you love me Any-more?
I'm uncertain of your feelings for me and asking if you still love me.

Just tell them
If you tell me honestly about your feelings, I'll at least know the truth.

Lonely is the name
I'm a lonely and broken person right now.

It will always be
I'm afraid that my life will always be defined by loneliness without you.

And crying is the game,
My only solace is to cry and release some of the emotion I've been bottling up inside me.

'Til you're back with me;
I won't stop crying or feeling lonely until I have you back in my life again.

I'll never be the same
You've had an impact on me that's irreversible, and I cannot go back to who I was without you.

With-out your love.
Your love is the only thing that gave my life meaning, and without it, I'm just an empty shell of a person.

Lyrics © MUSIC SALES CORPORATION, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BERT KAEMPFERT, CARL SIGMAN, HERBERT REHBEIN

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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