My Prayer

Album

The Platters

Label

Mercury Records

Genre

Doo-Wop

Media Type

78

Duration

2:48

Composer(s)

Goerges Boulanger,Jimmy Kennedy

Entered Chart

Jul 7, 1956

Peak Date

Aug 4, 1956

Released

6 June 1956

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Mercury 70893X45

B-Side

Heaven on Earth

Original Artist

Glenn Miller

"My Prayer" is a 1939 popular song with music by salon violinist Georges Boulanger and lyrics by Carlos Gomez Barrera and Jimmy Kennedy. It was originally written by Boulanger with the title Avant de mourir (Before dying) in 1926. Kennedy added the lyrics for this version in 1939. Glenn Miller recorded the song that year for a number two hit and the Ink Spots' version featuring Bill Kenny reached number three, as well, that year. It has been recorded many times since, but the biggest hit version was a doo-wop rendition in 1956 by the Platters,whose single release reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 in the summer, and ranked four for the year. This version also went to #1 on both the R&B Airplay and R&B Juke Box chart. The Platters recording features in the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in the 1985 film Mischief, in the 1999 film October Sky, and in two episodes of the 2017 series of Twin Peaks. The Ink Spots' version of the song was featured in the 1992 movie Malcolm X. Vera Lynn sang the song in the British film One Exciting Night in 1944. The song also became a tango in the Italian version by Norma Bruni and Cinico Angelini's orchestra (1940), "Sì, voglio vivere ancor

When the twilight is gone and no songbirds are singing
When the twilight is gone you come into my heart
And here in my heart you will stay while I pray

My prayer is to linger with you
At the end of the day in a dream that's divine
My prayer is a rapture in blue
With the world far away and your lips close to mine

Tonight while our hearts are a glow
Oh tell me the words that I'm longing to know

My prayer and the answer you give
May they still be the same for as long as we live
That you'll always be there at the end of my prayer