McCorkle was born in Berkeley, California. She studied modern languages at the University of California, Berkeley. McCorkle began singing professionally after hearing recordings of Billie Holiday in Paris in the late 1960s. She nearly became an interpreter at the European Commission in Brussels, but moved instead to London in 1972 to pursue a career in singing. While in the UK, she made two albums which, although well received, enjoyed only limited circulation.
In the late 1970s, McCorkle returned to the United States and settled in New York City, where a five-month engagement at the Cookery in Greenwich Village brought her to wider public attention and elicited rave reviews from critics.
During the 1980s, McCorkle continued to record; her maturing style and the darkening timbre of her voice greatly enhanced her performances. In the early 1990s, two of the albums McCorkle made for Concord Records, No More Blues and Sábia, were enormously successful and made her name known to the wider world. She was recorded by the Smithsonian Institution which at the time made her the youngest singer ever to have been included in its popular music series. McCorkle played Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls five times and Carnegie Hall three times, and was featured soloist with Skitch Henderson and the 80-piece New York Pops in a concert of Brazilian music.
Thanks to her linguistic skills, McCorkle translated lyrics of Brazilian, French, and Italian songs, notably those for her Brazilian album Sabia. McCorkle also had several short stories published and, in 1991, began work on her first novel. She published fiction in Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and non-fiction in the New York Times Magazine and in American Heritage, including lengthy articles on Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Irving Berlin and Mae West.
McCorkle suffered for many years from depression and cancer, and took her own life at age 55 by leaping off the balcony of her highrise Manhattan apartment. She was alone in her home at the time. The police immediately entered her home after identifying her body and found no foul play. Suicide was ruled the cause of death.
At Long Last Love
Susannah McCorkle Lyrics
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Is it the good turtle soup or merely the mock?
Is it a cocktail, this feeling of joy?
Or is what i feel the real McCoy?
Is it for all time or simply a lark?
Is it Granada i see or only Asbury Park?
Is it a fancy not worth thinking of?
Is it an earthquake, or simply a shock?
Is it the good turtle soup, or is it merely the mock?
Is it a cocktail, this feeling of joy?
Or is what i feel the real McCoy?
Is it for all time or simply a lark?
Is it Granada i see or only Asbury Park?
Is it a fancy, not worth thinking of?
Or is it at long long long last love?
In Susannah McCorkle's song "At Long Last Love," the lyrics meditate on the ephemeral nature of love and whether or not the feeling is genuine. The first stanza poses a series of questions comparing love to various experiences and asking if what the singer is feeling is truly love or just a passing sensation. The second stanza continues this theme, asking if the love is for "all time or simply a lark," and even questioning if the setting of the moment (Granada versus Asbury Park) has any bearing on the authenticity of the emotions. The final line, "or is it at long long long last love," hint at a weary acceptance that perhaps this time, the love is true.
The choice of comparisons in the lyrics is interesting, as they range from an earthquake (a natural disaster with the power to devastate) to good turtle soup (something nourishing and comforting). These comparisons suggest that the singer is trying to grasp onto anything familiar and concrete in order to make sense of their feelings. The repetition of the first stanza in the second half of the song also highlights the sense of confusion and uncertainty about the singer's emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
Is it an earthquake or simply a shock?
Am I feeling a deep and sudden emotional upheaval or just a mild surprise?
Is it the good turtle soup or merely the mock?
Am I experiencing authentic and satisfying love, or just a shallow imitation?
Is it a cocktail, this feeling of joy?
Does this happy sensation come from a temporary and surface-level source?
Or is what I feel the real McCoy?
Or is it genuine and true love that I am finally experiencing?
Is it for all time or simply a lark?
Is this feeling deep enough to last a lifetime, or just a temporary and fleeting infatuation?
Is it Granada I see or only Asbury Park?
Am I seeing an idyllic and unreachable image of romance, or just a mundane and ordinary reality?
Is it a fancy not worth thinking of?
Is this just a passing whimsical notion that does not deserve my attention?
Or is it at long last love?
Or is this the moment I have been waiting for, finally experiencing true and reciprocated love?
Is it at long long long last love?
Repeated for emphasis, is this really, truly, finally the love I have been searching for?
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: COLE PORTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind