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.
How Do You Keep The Music Playing
Susannah McCorkle Lyrics
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How do you make it last?
How do you keep the song from fading too fast?
How do you lose yourself to someone
And never lose your way?
How do you not run out of new things to say?
And since you know we're always changing
How can it be the same?
You're sure your heart will fall apart
Each time you hear his name?
I know the way I feel for you it's now or never
The more I love, the more that I'm afraid
That in your eyes I may not see forever, forever
If we can be the best of lovers
Yet be the best of friends
If we can try with every day to make it better as it grows
With any luck then I suppose
The music never ends
I know, the way I feel for you
It's now or never
The more I love, the more that I'm afraid
That in your eyes I may not see forever, forever
If we can be the best of lovers
Yet be the best of friends
If we can try with every day to make it better as it grows
With any luck then I suppose
The music never ends
The lyrics to Susannah McCorkle's song "How Do You Keep The Music Playing" explore the theme of how to sustain a relationship over time. The questions posed throughout the song ask how to make a relationship last, how to avoid losing oneself and the connection with the other person, how to continue to find new things to say and ways to connect, and how to be sure that love will endure despite the inevitability of change. The lyrics also express a fear of loss, of not being able to see forever in the eyes of the person we love. Finally, the song proposes that being the best of lovers and the best of friends, trying every day to make the relationship better, and growing together are the keys to keeping the music, or love, alive.
The song was written by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, and Michel Legrand in 1982 for the film "Best Friends," which starred Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn. The soundtrack version of the song was performed by James Ingram and Patti Austin, and it earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1983. The song has since been covered by many artists, including Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, and Celine Dion.
Line by Line Meaning
How do you keep the music playing?
How do you keep the love alive?
How do you make it last?
How do you ensure that the love doesn't fade away?
How do you keep the song from fading too fast?
How do you prevent the love from losing its intensity too soon?
How do you lose yourself to someone
And never lose your way?
How do you give yourself completely to someone without losing your own identity?
How do you not run out of new things to say?
How do you keep the conversation fresh and interesting?
And since you know we're always changing
How can it be the same?
How can the love remain constant despite the changes that people go through?
And tell me how year after year
You're sure your heart will fall apart
Each time you hear his name?
How do you deal with the heartbreak of lost love year after year?
I know the way I feel for you it's now or never
I know that my love for you cannot wait.
The more I love, the more that I'm afraid
That in your eyes I may not see forever, forever
The more I love you, the more scared I am that you may not feel the same way forever.
If we can be the best of lovers
Yet be the best of friends
If we can try with every day to make it better as it grows
With any luck then I suppose
The music never ends
If we can balance our love with friendship, and work on improving it every day, then perhaps our love will never die.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: MICHEL JEAN LEGRAND, ALAN BERGMAN, MARILYN BERGMAN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind