DORIS MARY ANNE KAPELHOFF or simply DORIS DAY

Thoughts come and go but some linger. Presently, my mind is on Doris Day and so I decided to revisit her songs.

First, a little about her life. Of German heritage whose grandparents migrated to the US, Doris Day was named Doris Mary Anne Kapelhoff at birth. She wanted to be a dancer but a car accident injured her right leg badly and she decided to switch to singing. She took lessons and her inspiration was Ella Fitzgerald. Soon, her tremendous potential was recognized and she was hired as a professional singer. Her employer, Barney Rapp, felt her name was too long and after her rendition of the song “Day After Day”, shortened her name to Doris Day. Her first hit was “Sentimental Journey” in 1945 after which she went from strength to strength and was considered a singer as good as Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. From 1949 to 1958, she was No. 1 female vocalist on the US Billboard winning Oscars for Best Original Song for “Secret Love” in the movie “Calamity Jane” in ’54 and and “Que Sera Sera” in ’57.

In the ‘60s, she earned fame as a top actress and made many films with Rock Hudson such as “Pillow Talk” for which she won an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, “Lover Come Back” and “Send Me No Flowers”. Rock Hudson was her lifelong friend but they never married perhaps because, as we surprisingly learnt only after his death, he was gay. In later life, she became an animal welfare activist and lived to the age of 97. She passed away on 13 May 2019, coincidentally 2 1/2 years to the day!

Her married life was not happy and she had four unsuccessful marriages. Fortunately, that does not seem to have affected her singing which was sweet, soft and hopeful though touchingly emotional and romantic.

Reflecting her positive outlook, her songs were not about heartbreaks. But she sang about being careful in giving her heart only to someone who would promise to give all his love in return. “If I Give My Heart To You” has the following lines-

‘If I give my heart to you, will you handle it with care,

Will you always treat me tenderly and in every way be fair,

If I give my heart to you, will you give me all your love,

When you promise all these things to me,

Then I will give my heart to you.’

Love did have her in a spin. In “Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered”, she sang-

‘I’m wild again, beguiled again, a simpering, whimpering child again,

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, am I….

Lost my heart but what of it….

I”ll sing to him, each Spring to him,

And long for the day when I cling to him,

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, am I.’

And then “You Do Something To Me”-

‘Something that simply mystifies me,

Tell me, why should it be, 

You have the power to hypnotize me,

For you do something to me,

That nobody else could do.’

In “Secret Love”, she wished to keep her love within her heart but her lover ‘became impatient to be free’-

‘So I told a friendly star, the way that dreamers often do,

Just how wonderful you are, and why I’m so in love with you….

At last my heart’s an open door,

And my secret love’s no secret any more’.

Just by telling it to a star!

One of the most romantic songs I have ever heard is her “Beautiful Music To Love By”. Switch on the video in which she features with Rock Hudson and waltz the night away with your loved one. In this song, she again goes for a heady spin:

‘There goes the room, round and round like a spinning top,

And my heart’s going dizzy, but don’t let it stop,

Oh, your lips are so thrilling to cling to.

I don’t care, if it’s right or it’s wrong,

This is beautiful music to love by.

Hold me tight, kiss me sweet, love me long.’

In keeping with her optimistic nature, she did a number of light numbers. One of them is “Guy Is A guy”-

‘I walked down the street like a good girl should,

He followed me down the street like I knew he would….

He asked me for a good night kiss,

I said it’s still good day,

I would have told him more instead,

His lips got in my way….

So I walked down the aisle like a good girl should,

He followed me down the aisle like I knew he would,

Because a guy is a guy wherever he may be….’

Then there is “Enjoy Yourself” where she exhorts us to do that before it’s too late-

‘Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think,

Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink,

The years go by, as quickly as a wink, 

Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think.’

Her laissez faire attitude stood out in the number which promptly won everyone’s heart. It was “Que Sera Sera” which she sings while putting her son to bed in the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Man Who Knew Too Much”. I am sure many mothers still sing it to their children and the lyrics are known to most us. But I loved it when Vinnie Mama used to sing his Hindi translation-

‘Jab mein ek chhoti ladki thi, maine Amma se poocha mera kya hoga,

Kya mein khubsurat banoogi, amir banoogi, Amma ne yeh bola,

Que sera sera, jo hona hai so hoga,

Aage ki kuchh pata nahin hai,

Jo hoga so hoga, Que sera sera.’

To end, let’s go back to her first hit, “Sentimental journey”-

‘Gonna take a sentimental journey….

To renew old memories, 

Gonna take a sentimental journey,

Sentimental journey home.’

And I am headed for Jaipur!

P.S. I don’t follow present day pop music much. But by chance, I discovered someone who appealed to me as a modern Doris Day. She is the Belgian dinger Dana Winner. Her “One Moment In Time” is brilliant-

‘Give me one moment in time, when I’m racing with destiny,

Then in that one moment of time,

I will feel, I will feel eternity’.

There is more where that comes from!