"Laura" is a 1945 popular song. The music was composed by David Raksin for the 1944 movie Laura starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, and is heard frequently in the movie. The lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer after the film had made the tune popular. According to Mercer, he had not yet seen the movie when he wrote the lyrics, but was aware that it was a romantic, somewhat haunting story.
The song has become a jazz standard, with more than 400 known recordings. Some of the best-known versions are by Woody Herman, Johnny Johnston, Emil Newman, David Rose, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker, J. J. Johnson, Frank Sinatra and Julie London (included on her 1955 debut album Julie Is Her Name, Vol. 1). The first 10 notes of the song are sometimes "quoted" during jazz solos, especially since Dizzy Gillespie did it during his "Perdido" solo at the famous Massey Hall concert in 1953.
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Laura is the face in the misty lights. Footsteps that you hear down the hall. The love that floats on a summer night, That you can never quite recall.
And you see Laura on a train that is passing through. Those eyes how familiar they seem She gave your very first kiss to you, That was Laura but she's only a dream.