Havin' A Wonderful Wish
(Time You Were Here)
1948


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Highlights
  • Written for the 1949 Paramount Pictures film, Sorrowful Jones. Directed by Sidney Lanfield, starring Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, and William Demarest.
  • A young girl is left with the notoriously cheap Sorrowful Jones as a marker for a bet. When her father doesn't return, he learns that taking care of a child interferes with his free-wheeling lifestyle. Sorrowful must also evade crooked gangsters and indulge in a bit of horse-thieving.
  • HAVIN' A WONDERFUL WISH (TIME YOU WERE HERE) is performed in the film by Lucille Ball (dubbed by Annette Warren).
  • Excerpt played in the 1949 Paramount Pictures film, Dear Heart.

WRITTEN BY RAY EVANS & JAY LIVINGSTON
COPYRIGHT 1948


Recording History
Shep Fields and his Orchestra and Scottee Marsh, Don't Call Me Sweetheart Anymore (Laney) / Havin' A Wonderful Wish (Time You Were Here), MGM Records, 10454, 1948
Benny Goodman and Buddy Greco, The Huckle-Buck / Havin' a Wonderful Wish, Capitol Records, CL 13125, 1948
Vera Lynn
Dinah Shore, Having a Wonderful Wish / The Sory of My Life, Columbia Records, 38422, 1948
Lawrence Welk and his Orchestra, Soundies Digital, Volume 15, Soundies, 2006
Lyrics
Why am I so restless?
You might even say I’m blue
It’s no fun to be caressless
When there’s so much to do
And I’m saving all my love for you
Just keeping all my love for you.
 
The stars look down they seem to say,
“Maybe love is on it’s way”
I’m havin’ a wonderful wish
(Hum) - Time you were here!
 
The town’s awake and so am I
In no mood to just sit by
I’m havin’ a wonderful wish
(Hum) – Time you were here!
 
Couples on the corner, laughin’, lovin’,
Make me feel so alone.
I’d really like to do some
Lovin’ in a two-some, All my own!
 
Why must they keep the moon so bright?
I won’t sleep a wink tonight;
I’m havin’ a wonderful wish
(I’ve been waitin’ so long) Time you were here!
 
HAVIN’ A WONDERFUL WISH (TIME YOU WERE HERE) as sung in the Paramount Picture Damon Runyon’s Sorrowful Jones, starring Bob Hope, Paramount Music Corporation, 1948 Music and Words by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans