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.
Haunted Heart
Susannah McCorkle Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
In the night, though we're apart,
There's a ghost of you within my haunted heart
Ghost of you, my lost romance,
Lips that laugh, eyes that dance
Haunted heart won't let me be,
Dreams repeat a sweet but lonely song to me
Dreams are dust, it's you who must belong to me
And thrill my haunted heart,
Be still my haunted heart
Dreams are dust, it's you who must belong to me
And thrill my haunted heart,
Be still my haunted heart
The song "Haunted Heart" is a lament of a person who cannot forget their lost love. Even though they are apart, the memories of their former lover continue to haunt their heart. The singer describes the ghost of their lost romance, and how they can still see the lips that laughed and the eyes that danced. Despite this, the singer is unable to let go, and their dreams are full of the memory of their lost love. They long for their former partner to come back to them and to bring excitement to their "haunted heart."
The repeated line "Dreams are dust, it's you who must belong to me" emphasizes the singer's desperation and longing for their lost love. They believe that their dreams are meaningless, and the only way to ease their haunted heart is to be reunited with their lover. The final lines "And thrill my haunted heart, Be still my haunted heart" provide a sense of hope and resolution for the singer. They know what they want, but they also understand that their heart needs to be at peace before they can find contentment.
Overall, the lyrics of "Haunted Heart" are a melancholic, but beautiful representation of the pain of heartbreak and the longing for love.
Line by Line Meaning
In the night, though we're apart,
Even though we are physically separated at night,
There's a ghost of you within my haunted heart
Your memory haunts my heart and feels like a ghostly presence
Ghost of you, my lost romance,
The memory of you, my past love,
Lips that laugh, eyes that dance
Your smiling lips and sparkling eyes that brought me happiness
Haunted heart won't let me be,
My haunted heart won't let go of the memories of you,
Dreams repeat a sweet but lonely song to me
In my dreams, I hear a nostalgic and sad song about us
Dreams are dust, it's you who must belong to me
My dreams are just fantasies that will never come true, it's you that I want to be with
And thrill my haunted heart,
Your presence will excite and thrill my heart that misses you
Be still my haunted heart
But at the same time, I need to find peace and calmness within my heart
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: FREDDY CURCI, STEVE DEMARCHI, STEVE DIAMOND
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind