"A Perfect Day" (first line: "When you come to the end of a perfect day") is a parlor song written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862–1946) in 1909 at the Mission Inn, Riverside, California.[1] Jacobs-Bond wrote the lyrics after watching the sun set over Mount Rubidoux from her 4th-floor room. She came up with the tune three months later while touring the Mojave Desert.[2] For many years the Mission Inn played "A Perfect Day" on its carillon at the end of each day.[3]
Popularity
"A Perfect Day" was phenomenally successful when first published in 1910.[4] Eight million copies of the sheet music and five million recordings sold within a year;[5] 25 million copies of the sheet music sold during Jacobs-Bond's lifetime, and many millions of recordings circulated as various artists performed the song on the fast-growing means of audio duplication.[6] It was her most-requested number when Jacobs-Bond entertained the soldiers at U.S. Army camps in Europe during World War I. The popularity of "A Perfect Day" became so rampant that even Jacobs-Bond indicated in her autobiography that she had "tired" of hearing it. Along with "Just Awearyin' for You"[7] and "I Love You Truly"—both published in 1901 as part of the collection Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose—"A Perfect Day" augmented Jacobs-Bond's career as the first woman who made a living from composing.[8]
According to "Backstairs At the White House" by former White House seamstress Lillian Rogers Parks, "A Perfect Day" was the favorite song of First Lady Florence Harding. She often had it played at White House concerts.[citation needed]
"A Perfect Day" was in the ship's songbook when RMS Titanic made its fatal maiden voyage in 1912.[9]
Artists
"A Perfect Day" has been frequently recorded in English. Otto Leisner's Norwegian translation was popularized by Sissel Kyrkjebø.
In English
Besides the plaintive 1915 McKee Trio instrumental rendition linked in this article, "A Perfect Day" has been recorded by numerous artists from various backgrounds, including:
In the 1940 feature film Remember the Night, Sterling Holloway sang "A Perfect Day" accompanied by Barbara Stanwyck at the piano.[27] In 1945, opera soprano Helen Traubel recorded an andante interpretation.[28] In the 1940s, Alfredo Antonini and his orchestra collaborated with Victoria Cordova and John Serry Sr. to record the song for Muzak.[29]Norma Zimmer sang "A Perfect Day" on the Lawrence Welk Show in 1962 in response to thousands of requests.[30] In 1976, American tenor, Robert White, concluded his first album with RCA Records, When You and I Were Young, Maggie, with "A Perfect Day" accompanied by pianist Samuel Sanders.
In Norwegian ("En deilig dag")
Danish journalist Otto Leisner (1917–2008) translated "A Perfect Day" into Norwegian as "En deilig dag"; this translation has been recorded by, among others, Sissel Kyrkjebø.[31]
Character
"A Perfect Day" exemplifies the sentimentality popular in the late Victorian and post-Victorian era but has risen above such a sequestered view by nuances of studied reflection which, combined with the chord progressions of Jacobs-Bond's tune, have borne its appeal across time and cultural boundaries. "A Perfect Day" persists as an elegy using the analogy of the end of day as the end of life.[32]
^The place is indicated in a line inserted above the title on p. 3 of the high voice (soprano) edition published in 1938 by the Boston Music Company; this version is in the key of C.
^When first published in 1910 by Carrie Jacobs-Bond & Son in Chicago, it came out in transcriptions for high voice (soprano, tenor) in the key of A-flat and low voice (contralto, bass) in the key of F. Later, a medium-voice (low soprano / high alto, baritone) transcription appeared, in the key of G. Publication information and the sheet music (including notes and lyrics) are part of the Lester S. Levy Collection of the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute, online at Johns Hopkins University site (accessed 2009 September 03).
^White Star Line Song Book. Liverpool: R.M.S. Titanic. 1912. "A Perfect Day" was the second item in the book.
^Jacobs-Bond was apparently enamoured of Bispham's circulation of the song. When Jacobs-Bond published "A Perfect Day" in 1910 she added the header "As sung by Mr. David Bispham" above the title (the header appears on p. 3 of the sheet music). She retained the statement in a 1938 republication of the song (with the imprint indicating the Boston Music Company as the sole-selling agents but also explicitly citing Carrie Jacobs-Bond & Son Incorporated, then of Hollywood, California) even though by that time numerous others had recorded it.
^"A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved September 13, 2017. (recorded December 13, 1950)
^Holloway's rendition on YouTube. In the film Holloway calls the song "In the End of a Perfect Day"; "The End of a Perfect Day" and "At the End of a Perfect Day" are vernacular titles.
^Rick Reublein, "America's First Great Woman Popular Song Composer" site. The death of her only child affected Jacobs-Bond profoundly. She dedicated her 1940 book of poetry, The End of the Road, to him. Jacobs-Bond, Carrie (1940). Palmer, Jamie (ed.). The End of the Road. Hollywood, CA: George Palmer Putnam. ISBN1-4191-2942-2.p. iii.
