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"Memory", often incorrectly referred to as "Memories", is a show tune from the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats sung by the character Grizabella, a one-time glamour cat who is now a shell of her former self. The song is a nostalgic remembrance of her glorious past and a declaration of her wishes to start a new life. Sung briefly in the first act and in full near the end of the show, "Memory" is the climax of the musical, and by far its most popular and well-known song.
The lyric, written by Cats director Trevor Nunn, was based on T. S. Eliot's poems "Preludes" and "Rhapsody on a Windy Night". Lloyd Webber's former writing partner, Tim Rice and contemporary collaborator Don Black submitted a lyric to the show's producers for consideration, although Nunn's version was favoured. Elaine Paige has said that she sung a different lyric to the tune of Memory for the first 10 previews of Cats.
Lloyd Webber, fearing that the tune sounded too similar to a work of Puccini, and the opening - the haunting main theme - also resembles the flute solo in The Mamas & the Papas' 1965 song "California Dreamin'", asked his father's opinion. According to Lloyd Webber, his father responded, "It sounds like a million dollars!" So he based the haunting opening bars of the tune on Ravel's Bolero.
The careful listener could also notice the famous lines of Memory sound highly similar to the song Viņi dejoja vienu vasaru, composed by the Latvian composer Imants Kalniņš for Elpojiet dziļi, a 1967 Latvian movie.
Prior to its inclusion in Cats, the tune was ear-marked for earlier Lloyd Webber projects, including a ballad for Perón in Evita and as a song for Max in his original 1970's draft of Sunset Boulevard.
In its original orchestration, the song's climax is in the key of D-flat major, the composer's favourite.
The arrangement of the lyrics in the show were changed after the initial recordings of the track, with the first verse beginning,"Midnight, not a sound from the pavement..." being used in only the brief, Act I rendition of the song and a new verse, "Memory, turn your face to the moonlight...'" in its place for the Act II performance. Furthermore, the original second bridge section became the first and a new second bridge instated. Consequently, the arrangement of the lyric for a recording usually depends on whether the artist has played the role on stage.
The lyric, written by Cats director Trevor Nunn, was based on T. S. Eliot's poems "Preludes" and "Rhapsody on a Windy Night". Lloyd Webber's former writing partner, Tim Rice and contemporary collaborator Don Black submitted a lyric to the show's producers for consideration, although Nunn's version was favoured. Elaine Paige has said that she sung a different lyric to the tune of Memory for the first 10 previews of Cats.
Lloyd Webber, fearing that the tune sounded too similar to a work of Puccini, and the opening - the haunting main theme - also resembles the flute solo in The Mamas & the Papas' 1965 song "California Dreamin'", asked his father's opinion. According to Lloyd Webber, his father responded, "It sounds like a million dollars!" So he based the haunting opening bars of the tune on Ravel's Bolero.
The careful listener could also notice the famous lines of Memory sound highly similar to the song Viņi dejoja vienu vasaru, composed by the Latvian composer Imants Kalniņš for Elpojiet dziļi, a 1967 Latvian movie.
Prior to its inclusion in Cats, the tune was ear-marked for earlier Lloyd Webber projects, including a ballad for Perón in Evita and as a song for Max in his original 1970's draft of Sunset Boulevard.
In its original orchestration, the song's climax is in the key of D-flat major, the composer's favourite.
The arrangement of the lyrics in the show were changed after the initial recordings of the track, with the first verse beginning,"Midnight, not a sound from the pavement..." being used in only the brief, Act I rendition of the song and a new verse, "Memory, turn your face to the moonlight...'" in its place for the Act II performance. Furthermore, the original second bridge section became the first and a new second bridge instated. Consequently, the arrangement of the lyric for a recording usually depends on whether the artist has played the role on stage.