The Twelfth of Never

"The Twelfth of Never" is a popular song recorded by Johnny Mathis and later by Donny Osmond. The song's title comes from the popular expression "the 12th of Never," which is used as the date of a future occurrence that will never come to pass. In the case of the song, the 12th of Never is given as the date on which the singer will stop loving his beloved, thus indicating that he will "always" love her/him. The song draws a similar link between the cessation of love and a number of other events expected never to happen.

The song was written by Jerry Livingston and Paul Francis Webster, the tune (except for the bridge) being adapted from "The Riddle Song" (also known as "I Gave My Love a Cherry"), an old English folk song. Johnny Mathis's original version reached number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA in 1957. Donny Osmond's version, produced by Mike Curb and Don Costa, was his second number one single in the United Kingdom, spending a single week at the top in March 1973. In the USA it peaked at #8.

Other recordings include Roger Miller on the 1968 album "A Tender Look at Love" and Jeff Buckley on "Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition)". Olivia Newton-John also covered the song on her 1989 album "Warm and Tender". Newton-John's version of the song and her album was produced by John Farrar. In 2005, Dolly Parton recorded the song as a duet with Keith Urban on her album, "Those Were the Days". A rehearsal recording of the song by Elvis Presley also exists. It was officialy releases on Walk A Mile In My Shoes - The Essential 70´s Masters.Dame Gracie Fields recorded this as a single in 1960.

Other uses

The song was also the title of a book about alleged murderer Betty Broderick. It draws its title from the fact that the song by Johnny Mathis was played at her wedding. Her story was later turned into a movie, "A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story", where the title role was played by Meridith Baxter-Birney, who was also in the 1980s show "Family Ties", whose theme song "Without Us" was sung by Johnny Mathis.

"The Twelfth of Never" is also the title of a book by Louis Nowra. It is not rot related to the aforementioned book.

In his song "Europa and the Pirate Twins", Thomas Dolby tells the tale of two childhood friends separated by war and circumstance. Before the war, while their fathers were away, the children experience the "Twelfth of Never" on the sand, walking down the beaches holding hands.

The Earth Wind & Fire Song "Fantasy" is often mistakenly referred to as "The Twelfth of Never", due to that phrase's prominence in the chorus.

References

*cite book | last = Ewen | first = David | year = 1977 | title = All the Years of Popular Music | publisher = Prentice Hall | pages = p. 539 | id = ISBN 0-13-022442-1 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=j0KWba_KFi0C&pgis=1 | accessdate = 2007-03-25