come on. This is the love song to end all love songs. I have always been drawn to the classics, because back in the day, when they wrote a song it was because they had something to SAY! There aren't a ton of words, but damn it if she didn't sing the hell out of this song. It's been done well, it's been done mediocre, and it's been massacred. But IT. HAS.BEEN. DONE.
Growing up, I couldn't get enough of this song. It reminded me that the one for me was coming, and it would be worth the wait. It told me that it would be like nothing I had ever had before or that I would have again. When I found the one, I would know it!
"At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song
At last
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you
I found a dream, that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known
You smiled, you smiled
Oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in heaven
for you are mine...
At Last"
And that's why I hate it now. I had it set aside. I am a planner, you see. I always knew what I would name my daughter, and I did! I always knew what my first house would look like (white house, black shutters, red door), and I always knew what my wedding song would be. I got 2 out of 3 of those things.
I fell in love, he proposed, we had a child, and he was all for using "At Last". I had the wedding planned all the way down to a deposit on the venue (a castle, mind you) bought the dress, deposits at the caterers. And then one day, he "doesn't want to be a husband or a father".
Now every time that I hear that song, the joy is missing. It has become a funeral song for me. Of course, this was all years ago, I am married to a different man, and of course we have a completely different song. But unless you live under a rock, there is no getting away from this damned Etta James song. Every wedding, commercials, tv shows, the Presidential Inauguration! They all have used this song. When I hear it, I no longer hear the promise of an amazing love story, but I hear a soft-hearted woman that fooled herself into thinking that just because I meant every word that I said, that maybe he did too. What a shame.
