You must remember this. One of the most enduring evergreens from the Great American Songbook, from one of the most famous movies of all time, was not…as many people think…written specially for Casablanca. Many artists have interpreted the song over the years. However, As Time Goes By will forever be associated with Dooley Wilson, who performs it in the movie, and, many years after his death, had a surprise UK hit with it in 1978.
As Time Goes By then. It’s been around the world for a number of reasons.
This beautiful old chestnut was written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931, for the modestly successful 1931 Broadway show Everybody’s Welcome, where it was sung by Frances Williams.
On the back of the musical’s success, the melancholic ballad made it into the repertoire of several artists during the 1930s, with two performers each registering on the American Billboard chart with renditions in short succession: Rudy Vallee (#15) and Jacques Renard (#13). But it wasn’t until the track featured in a certain Morocco-set film that it became a global phenomenon.
If you’re one of the few dozen people in the world who hasn’t seen Casablanca (which I’ve helpfully assessed here), it turns out that As Time Goes By was a favourite song of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman’s characters back in Paris before World War II, hence its recurring use throughout the film.
When Sam and Ilsa meet again, somewhat unexpectedly, in Casablanca, war is raging in Europe. This little Vichy-controlled part of North Africa has been left largely to its own devices and As Time Goes By both reminds them of happier times together before the war, and also sets the scene for their eventual split once more when Ingrid Bergman’s character leaves Morocco for safety.
Despite being a drummer and not a pianist, the Louis Armstrong-lite jazz performer Dooley Wilson was chosen to perform the song in the movie. Alhough deemed by some as sentimental and backward-looking, was perfect for its moment, both in the narrative of Casablanca, where its misty truisms of love and loyalty thaw Bogart’s iced-over soul, and in the larger narrative of America herself, meeting the challenge of producing the materials and manpower to win two wars at the two ends of the earth.
The use of the song as the film’s musical leitmotif also spawned one of the most famous misquotes in Hollywood history. In the movie, “Play it again, Sam,” is never actually said, and the closest is Bergman instructing Wilson to “Play it once, Sam.”
One of the reasons As Time Goes By is so moving is that it celebrates the importance of the little things in life. And in the midst of a terrible war, with suffering all around, it’s a reminder that love always wins over hate in the end. Sometimes it’s a long journey to get there, but it always does.
It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by
Coming out of nowhere, the Dooley Wilson recording was reissued as a single at the end of 1977 and rose to No. 15 in January 1978, giving the singer his only chart hit in Britain almost 25 years after he died.
Top of the hit parade at the time? Wings’ plodding Mull Of Kintyre.
You must remember that?
Steve Pafford
BONUS BEATS: Other versions were recorded and performed by scores of artists including Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby, Bob Dylan, Billie Holiday, Harry Nilsson, Carly Simon, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand and Bryan Ferry, who even named his 1999 covers project after the song.
