Songs My Mother Taught Me . . . To Each His Own

{This is the 11th in an undetermined number of songs my mother taught me I'm posting this month in her memory. For background, please visit the post containing the first song, Ivory Tower.}

To Each His Own was original music written by Victor Young for the 1946 movie of the same name, something I just learned while researching for this post. I only knew it as my mother's favorite song. Now I realize that it was her song for my father; maybe it was even "their song," since they were together in 1946 when it was recorded by five different artists/groups that year, all of them hits.

When I was little I liked looking at her albums when she was at work. There were a few album covers that I found particularly enchanting and perplexing and I played the records to unlock the mysteries of the cover photos and artwork. One was an album by The Ink Spots (another I will probably write about this week as I am wrapping up my October tribute of songs my mother taught me).  My mother also had the 45 rpm record of this song and played it so frequently that it seems in my mind a soundtrack for my hours growing from 3- to 4- to 5-years old. [Note: since first posting this the video of The Ink Spots version was deleted. I am replacing it with Al Martino's version, which was actually more popular.]

When I was a young teen my mother received a gift in the mail from an old friend who had shared days of heartbreak and divorce in the mid-1950s, a woman who had moved to California years before but with whom she stayed in touch. She opened the package to find a metal music box that had a shallow bowl for loose powder, with a small puff, under the lid on top. The turn-key was on the bottom and, when wound, played this tune. It still does...... although I must find someone who repairs old music boxes as it no longer winds fully so the song begins at wind-down-slow and ends after a few lines. The music box now in my possession seems nearly alive to me as it bravely chimes sparse notes of my mother's favorite song, To Each His Own.

- In 1946 there were five Top 10 versions- Eddy Howard (#1).The Ink Spots (#1)
Freddy Martin (#1), The Modernaires with Paula Kelly (#3),and Tony Martin (#4)
- also charted by The Platters # 21 in 1960
- also charted by The Tymes at # 78 in 1964
- also charted by Frankie Laine at # 82 in 1968
- also charted by Al Martino on his Greatest Hits album and it appears again on The Godfather III soundtrack album

To Each His Own- lyrics

A rose must remain with the sun and the rain

Or its lovely promise won't come true

To each his own, to each his own

And my own is you

What good is a song if the words just don't belong?

And a dream must be a dream for two

No good alone, to each his own

For me there's you

CHORUS

If a flame is to grow there must be a glow

To open each door there's a key

I need you, I know, I can't let you go

Your touch means too much to me

Two lips must insist on two more to be kissed

Or they'll never know what love can do

To each his own, I've found my own

One and only you

REPEAT FROM CHORUS