1967 - Shirley Bassey recorded and released this song on her 1967 album titled, 'And We Were Lovers'. Shirley's unbelievable vocal abilities are never so prevalent as on great inspirational songs such as this masterpiece that was written for the 1965 musical, 'Man of La Mancha.'
ABOUT the Album, And We Were Lovers:
And We Were Lovers is a 1967 studio album by Shirley Bassey. The album featured Bassey's first recording of "Big Spender', the single subsequently hit #21 on the charts. And We Were Lovers was recorded in America and in England. The American release replaced "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" with "Walking Happy", which was not available in the UK until the release of a compilation album The Shirley Bassey Collection II in the mid-1970s. A different version of "Big Spender", produced by Kenneth Hume and arranged by Marty Paich, also appeared only on the US issue. These two recordings are included as bonus tracks on a 2005 BGO Records release that has a remastered And We Were Lovers and I've Got a Song for You on a single CD in stereo.
ABOUT the musical, Man of La Mancha:
Man of La Mancha is a 1965 musical with a book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh. It is adapted from Wasserman's non-musical 1959 teleplay I, Don Quixote, which was in turn inspired by Miguel de Cervantes and his 17th-century novel Don Quixote. It tells the story of the "mad" knight Don Quixote as a play within a play, performed by Cervantes and his fellow prisoners as he awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition. The work is not and does not pretend to be a faithful rendition of either Cervantes' life or Don Quixote; for example, the historical Cervantes had no contact with the Spanish Inquisition, and Don Quixote's horse Rocinante is never stolen. Wasserman complained repeatedly about taking the work as a musical version of Don Quixote. The original 1965 Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The musical has been revived four times on Broadway, becoming one of the most enduring works of musical theatre.
The principal song, "The Impossible Dream", became a standard.
LYRICS:
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear the unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go...
To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from far,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!
This is my quest, to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far.
To fight for the rights without question or pause,
To be willing to march to Hell from a Heavenly cause!
And I know, if I'll only be the truth
For this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie peacefull and calm when I'm laid to my rest...
And the world will be better for done,
That one man scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable stars!