It has appeared in dozens of films and television shows. It once provided the melody to Korea's national anthem. It has been covered by U2, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley.
A poet named Robert Burns took a fragment of an old folk tune and crafted a song that would come to represent honoring the past, celebrating the future and the power of friendship and forgiveness.
Auld Lang Syne Lyrics
“I heard Professor James Chandler of the University of Chicago point out not only that ‘Auld Lang Syne' was America's (and the world's) favorite New Year's Eve song, but that it was also the song featured in more Hollywood movies than any other except ‘Happy Birthday,' ” said Robert Crawford is a professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and wrote the award-winning “The Bard,” a biography of Burns.
“Think everything from ‘Sex and the City' and ‘When Harry Met Sally' to ‘It's a Wonderful Life.' I think the song works so well in so many cultures because (like quite a lot of Burns' best works) it calls a community together around it, acknowledging differences and separations, yet extending a hand in a way that overcomes these.”
Auld Lang Syne Lyrics
Comments