Memory lyrics from Cats musical

"Memory", 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,composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber ,was based on T. S. Eliot's poems "Preludes" and "Rhapsody on a Windy Night".

Memory Lyrics

Daylight, see the dew on the sunflower
And the rose that is fading
Roses wither away
Like the sun flower
I yearn to turn my face to the dawn
I am waiting for the day

Now old Deuteronomy
Just before dawn
Through a silence you feel you could cut with a knife
Announces the cat who can now be reborn
And come back to a different jellical life

Memory, turn your face to the moonlight
Let your memory lead you
Open up, enter in
If you find there the meaning of what happiness is
Then a new life will begin

Memory, All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember a time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again

Burnt out ends of smoky days
The stale, cold smell of morning
a street lamp dies, another night is over
Another day is dawning...

Daylight
I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I musn't give in
When the dawn comes, tonight will be a memory too
And a new day
Will begin

Sunlight through
The trees in summer
Endless mascarading
Like a flower
As the dawn is breaking
The memory is fading

Touch me
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day
Has begun