About The Song
Longfellow Serenade is a notable 1974 hit released by Neil Diamond, a prolific American songwriter who sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. His career peaked during the 1960s and 1970s, with the interest in his songs gradually fading away only to be revived again in the 1990s following the success of Quentin Tarantino’s film Pulp Fiction that featured a cover of Diamond’s song Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon.
It was written by Diamond, produced by Tom Catalano, and included on Diamond’s album Serenade.
“Longfellow Serenade” spent two weeks at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in November 1974. It became Diamond’s second #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart, following his 1972 single, “Song Sung Blue”.
Longfellow Serenade references Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a 19th-century American educator who was a member of an influential group of writers known as the fireside poets.
According to Neil Diamond, the song was inspired by a romantic episode from his youth when he used one of Longfellow’s poems to seduce an older woman. The work in question was likely a poem titled Serenade from Longfellow’s play The Spanish Student.
Video
Lyrics
Lonfellow serenade
Such were the plans I’d made
For she was a lady
And I was a dreamer
With only words to trade
You know that I was born for a night like this
Warmed by a stolen kiss
For I was lonely
And she was lonely
Ride, come on baby, ride
Let me make your dreams come true
I’ll sing my song
Let me make it warm for you
I’ll weave his web of rhyme
Upon the summer night
We’ll leave this worldly time
On his winged flight
Then come, and as we lay
Beside this sleepy glade
There I will sing to you
My Longfellow serenade
Longfellow serenade
Such were the plans I made
But she was a lady
As deep as a river
And through the night, we stayed
And in my way, I loved her as none before
Loved her with words and more
For she was lonely
And I was lonely
Ride, come on baby, ride
Let me make you dreams come true
I’ll sing my song
Let me sing my song
Let me make it warm for you
I’ll weave this web of rhyme
Upon the summer night
We’ll leave this worldly time
On his winged flight
Then come, and as we lay
Beside this sleepy glade
There I will sing to you
My Longfellow serenade