Lyrics: None
Music: Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Paparelli
According to a 1987 interview with John Kahn, when Jerry Garcia, Kahn and Keith Godchaux briefly formed a jazz
piano combo in 1978 informally known as the "Front Street Sheiks", one of the songs they played was "A Night In Tunisia".
See here
for more information.
I assume they would have played this as an instrumental, as was the original Dizzie Gillespie
version. But lyrics were added later, first by Sarah Vaughan (based on the original title "Interlude")
I live in a dream for a momentThen lyrics relevant to the title "A Night In Tunisia" were added by Jon Hendricks (no one seems to know where that title came from)
We'd loved in a midnight solitude
But I never knew at the moment
Love was just an interlude
I thrill as your arms would enfold me
A kiss of surrender says the mood
Then heaven fell down when you told me
Love's a passing interlude
The magic was unsurpassed
Too good to last
The magic my heart once knew
Is dressed in blue
The shadow of night all around me
I walk in a moonlight solitude
When I thought romance really found me
Love was just an interlude
The shadow of night all around me
I walk in a moonlight solitude
When I thought romance really found me
Love was just an interlude
The moon is the same moon above you
A glow in its cool evening light
The stars are aglow in Tunisia
Never does it shine so bright
The cares of the days seem to vanish
The ending of day brings release
Each wonderful night in Tunisia
Where the nights are filled with peace
The stars are aglow in heavens
But only the wise understand
That shining tonight in Tunisia
They guide you through descent sand
And words fail to tell a tale exoticto be told
Each night's a deeper night in a worldages old
The cares of the world seem to vanish
The ending of day brings release
Each wonderful night in Tunisia
Where the nights are filled with peace
Recordings | |||||
Date | Album | Recorded By | |||
1946 | Dizzy Gillespie And His Orchestra | Dizzy Gillespie | |||
1995 | The Complete RCA Victor Recordings | Dizzy Gillespie |