Song for Day 57 - "The Windmills of Your Mind" sung by Noel Harrison

Singer Noel Harrison.

Day 57 - "The Windmills of Your Mind" sung by Noel Harrison

   IMHO, "The Thomas Crown Affair" (1968)  may have been the most underrated movie ever made, in no small part because of its theme song, "Windmills of Your Mind".  What makes the whole project even more amazing were the circumstances of its completion.  The story may have been embellished over time but the gist remains:      The film having been shot and edited, Producer/Director Norman Jewison  announced that, with two days before the shipping date, all they needed now was the score for the glider scene.

     Blink.

     Crickets.

     Blank looks all around.  French composer Michel Legrand had written everything asked of him;  no one had mentioned anything about such a scene.  Suddenly uncomfortable, he said in an accent that sounded like a cross between Yogi Bear  and Pepe Le Pew:  "Eh?  Why is everybody staring at me?"

Lyricists Marilyn and Alen Bergman.

     Each person in the room turned a whiter shade of pale as they realized they didn't have a complete score and wouldn't make their deadline.  Just as they were about to hit the panic button, Alan Bergman jumped up and said "No problem.  Marilyn and I  will take care of it."  This shouldn't have provided much reassurance;  the Bergmans were lyricists who hadn't composed much, if any, music yet.

     Quipped one skeptic:  "For all we knew, Alan couldn't carry a tune in a basket and Marilyn couldn't hold a note in an envelope."

Composer Michel Legrand in 2015.

     Legrand was able to contribute 8 notes of a baroque melody.  8 notes and 48 hours is all they had.  The next day, the Bergmans and Legrand hammered out lyrics.  When the latter insisted on trying to rhyme "shone" with "own" in English, Alan claimed "It's my language!", to which Legrand riposted:  "It's my tune!"  In a hurried recording session the late  Noel Harrison, whose London birthplace gave him the notion that he knew something about native English speech, settled the issue by enunciating "shone" correctly.  The rest, as they say, is history: this makeshift gem became the movie’s award winning theme song, eclipsing all the tunes Legrand and the Bergman’s had labored so long and hard to create.

      The song itself is more romantic, psychological and philosophical than political, but its birthing process was a lesson in composure, unity and teamwork overcoming sloppy planning and communication.

     Democrats take note!

      Almost everyone has recorded a cover of this song, among them Barbra Streisand,  Dusty Springfield, Eva Mendes, Neil Diamond, Sting, and Jose Feliciano.

Lyrics:

Round,
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that's turning
Running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind
Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half-forgotten dream
Like the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind
Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly?
Was it something that you said?
Lovers walk along a shore
And leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of a song
Half-remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over
You were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the color of his hair?
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind