Love's Old Sweet Song


"Love's Old Sweet Song" is a Victorian parlour song published in 1884 by composer James Lynam Molloy and lyricist G. Clifton Bingham. The first line of the chorus is "Just a song at twilight", and its title is sometimes misidentified as such.
The song has been recorded by many artists, including John McCormack and Clara Butt. The song is alluded to in James Joyce's Ulysses as being sung by Molly Bloom.
The song was recorded in 1923 for a two-reel short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. It also appeared as the theme in the orchestral score in John Barrymore's 1926 picture The Sea Beast.

Notable recordings

The song is mentioned in the chorus of Moonlight Bay, a popular song written in 1912.
A surreal rendition of the song was performed by comedian Spike Milligan in his series Q5.
A comical abbreviated rendition of the song is performed by Miss Cathcart in the Dennis the Menace TV show episode "Grandpa and Miss Cathcart", first aired on October 25, 1959.
The track A losing battle is raging, from The Caretaker's 2017 album Everywhere at the end of time , features an instrumental sample of the song taken from a 78 rpm record, looped and manipulated in a deliberately disorientating fashion to reflect the fictional protagonist's steadily worsening dementia.
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 at the piano, accompanied by the Mayor of Ogw, South Wales in an early scene, accompanying scenes of Annie Mary running to the local chip shop after having cooked a disastrous meal for her father.