Music / Parlor Song

"Tho' the heart be weary, sad the day and long, still to us at twilight, comes love's old sweet song."

A favourite song down memory lane.

This Victorian parlour song, "Love's Old Sweet Song" was published in 1884 by composer James Lynam Molloy and lyricist Graham Clifton Bingham. The first line of the chorus: "Just a song at twilight", and its title is sometimes misidentified as such. Bingham wrote the lyrics after which various composers set it to music. The successful candidate was James Molloy.

The song was first sung by Antoinette Sterling at a concert at St. James's Hall in London in 1884. It has been recorded by many artists, including John McCormack and Clara Butt. It is alluded to in James Joyce's Ulysses as being sung by Molly Bloom.

Video below: "Love's Old Sweet Song (Just a Song at Twilight) J. L. Molloy" YouTube, uploaded by patriciahammondsongs. Accessed October 4, 2025. Here's another link to a video, sung by Nelson Eddy - "Just a Song at Twilight". Uploaded by Mac&EddyMagic. Accessed October 3, 2025.

The song contains two verses and a refrain.

Love's Old Sweet Song

Music by J.L. Molloy;
words by G. Clifton Bingham

1. Once in the dear dead days beyond recall,
When on the world the mists began to fall,
Out of the dreams that rose in happy throng
Low to our hearts Love sang an old sweet song;
And in the dusk where fell the firelight gleam,
Softly it wove itself into our dream.

Refrain: Just a song a twilight, when the lights are low,
And the flick'ring shadows softly come and go,
Tho' the heart be weary, sad the day and long,
Still to us at twilight comes Love's old song,
comes Love's old sweet song.

2. Even today we hear Love's song of yore,
Deep in our hearts it dwells forevermore.
Footsteps may falter, weary grow the way,
Still we can hear it at the close of day.
So till the end, when life's dim shadows fall,
Love will be found the sweetest song of all.

Notable Recordings

1932 The Rondoliers and Piano Pals
1940 The Mills Brothers - recorded March 22, 1940 for Decca Records (catalog No. 3455B).
1950 Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae
1954 Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1956 for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in a CD On the Sentimental Side issued by Collectors' Choice Music (catalog CCM2106) in 2010. Crosby also included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961)
1960 Ruby Murray - included in her album Ruby.
2011 Celtic Thunder Paul Byrom and Damian Mcginty

Some film appearances:

1923 Love's Old Sweet Song (1923 film) a two-reel short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.
1926 The Sea Beast - as the theme in the orchestral score in John Barrymore's film.
1935 The Arizonian - played in a show and danced to by Margot Grahame with James Bush and Richard Dix.
1939 Broadway Serenade - played on piano by Lew Ayres and sung by Jeanette MacDonald and audience in the Naughty Nineties nightclub.
1940 Rebecca - hummed by Joan Fontaine
1941 The Farmer's Wife - sung by Patricia Roc
1942 Unseen Enemy - sung by Irene Hervey
1946 Demobbed - sung by Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth in the garden medley
1947 Life with Father - played on piano and sung by William Powell
1950 Cheaper by the Dozen - played by the children on various instruments
1952 Wait till the Sun Shines, Nellie
1952 Belles on Their Toes - sung by Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Debra Paget, Barbara Bates, Robert Arthur and Hoagy Carmichael right after the beach barbecue
1975 The Wind and the Lion
1990 Awakenings
1992 Enchanted April
2023 Only Murders in the Building

More trivia:

The song is mentioned in the chorus of Moonlight Bay, a popular song written in 1912.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s "His Last Bow", 1917, brings Sherlock Holmes into service in World War One. Holmes speaks of "The Old Sweet Song", "How often have I heard it in days gone by. It was a favourite of the late lamented Professor Moriarty. Colonel Sebastian Moran has also been known to warble it."

A comical abbreviated rendition of the song is performed by Miss Cathcart (Mary Wickes) in the Dennis the Menace TV show episode "Grandpa and Miss Cathcart", first aired on October 25, 1959.

In The Wolvercote Tongue, an episode of Inspector Morse, Morse quotes, or perhaps misquotes, from the song, and mentions its title.

In the Little House on the Prairie series' eighth book, These Happy Golden Years, Pa sings the song to Laura on the night before she is to be married.

In the film Very Annie Mary 2001, the song is sung by Jack Pugh (Jonathan Pryce) at the piano, accompanied by the Mayor of Ogw, South Wales (Radcliffe Grafton) in an early scene, accompanying scenes of Annie Mary running to the local chip shop after having cooked a disastrous meal for her father.

In the first act of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," written in 1947, the character of Ann references the lyric "dear dead days beyond recall" when returning to visit her childhood home.

In the 1947 film “Life with Father” William Powell can be seen playing a few bars and singing a portion of the chorus.

In 2023, the song was sung by Jason Veasey in season 3 of the famous television series, Only Murders in the Building.

Resources:

Love's Old Sweet Song. en.wikipedia.org

Love's Old Sweet Song. Lyrics. Music in the Works of James Joyce. Accessed October 3, 2025.

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