In his last year, as he was dying from brain cancer, Mercer became extremely fond of Manilow, in part because Manilow's first hit record was of a song titled "Mandy", which was also the name of Mercer's daughter. After Mercer's death, his widow, Ginger Mehan Mercer, arranged to give some unfinished lyrics he had written to Manilow to possibly develop into complete songs. Among these was "When October Goes." Manilow applied his own melody to the lyric and issued it as a single in 1984.[2] The song's first appeared was at Manilow's album 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe.
This is also the title of an album put out by Rounder Records and produced by Christine Lavin, which features the title song and other fall related songs by singer/songwriters.
