That pot candy show with Marter, private trust, Ireland's leading private hospitals with locations nationwide, including Dublin, Cork and Limerick. This is News Talk. Well, it's that time of the week where we find out the meaning behind a lyric.

Now, if you want to tell someone you really love them, well, some will do with flowers, perhaps dozens of red roses arriving at the workplace on St. Valentine's Day. Or maybe a diamond ring might be more your style.

However, Paul Harrington is with me and he has a suggestion that declarations of love could be done in two and a half minutes with a song.

If so inclined. Good morning.

As people say nowadays, I'm just saying, you know, but of course, if you're not inclined to run up to somebody and sing a song, there's lots of beautiful poems out there, too. But of course not. You can't be in a little bit Tongue-In-Cheek. But I found this lovely, lovely. Well, very well known song. Old fashioned love song caught my attention. Now it is quite sentimental. And it's called The Twelfth of Never, which is which is an old phrase, meaning a very, very long time.

But I mentioned talking about saying it with a poem rather than flowers, but it kind of reads like a poem and it's a rather sweet poem too. I'm just going to read a little extract and let's not get overwhelmed. Now, you ask how much I need you. Must I explain? I need you. Oh, my darling. Like roses need rain. And you ask how long I love you. I'll tell you. True, until the 12th of never.

I'll still be loving you.

And OK, it's not exactly the Shakespeare, Spanish or Sonnet rather shall I compare it to a summer's day.

But I suppose, you know, men have been besotted by the fairer sex for many, many years, probably since time began. They're always looking for an imaginative way to say in which they love somebody. So but I tell you what, the imagination ran out, ran cold, I'm afraid, in 2018. There was I came across this Dutch version of the traps. I've never and it was entitled February 30th.

And you might see that in the Harry Potter diary. But it's it's not even the twenty ninth.

It's not even leap year when women can ask men traditionally to marry them, but have been a number of versions of this song.

You're going to sing Elvis did one. Donny Osmond. My goodness.

But yeah, I remember. Yeah. Go on.

No, I just think he got a hit in number one in 1973, which I was thirteen. So that would probably would have been the one that I impacted but are important to me. But you're saying that when you remember. Johnny Mathis are very good, of course. Yeah, but he had the first hit in the nineteen fifties in 1958 actually to be precise. And as you say, there's so many curves. It's a hugely, hugely popular song.

I mean, even somebody who you wouldn't think would cover the likes of Jeff Buckley did a version on his live. I live in a session as well. But here's the thing, Johnny Mathis a bit like a Radiohead song we looked at recently. He didn't like it at first, and in fact, he disliked almost everything about it by the bridge. And he was quoted as saying that it's very repetitious and that, of course, he was young, he was just out of college.

And he was, as he said himself, he was hot to trot and he wanted to do something, you know, rah, rah, rah, rah.

He said something earth shattering. Of course, this was the 1950s, after all. But, you know, and he was only really getting going. But I mean, what a career. I mean, from 1957 to the mid 80s, he had over 70 hits on the American charts. But he's got this incredible voice.

You know, everywhere I looked, he was described as the voice of the 50s. And of course, when you think back of, you know, songs like Misti from the movie Play Misty for me to write a song, it's like when a child is born, you know. And again, a lot of his songs appeared on movie soundtracks from Goodfellas to the hit TV series Mad Men.

And so much in between that spans over something like five decades. But I was looking at a recent interview relatively recently, but it's probably about two years old in The Washington Post where he talks about his voice and how he takes care of it, obviously, which is something I identify with. But, you know, he talks about it being his livelihood, but it's probably more important that it is his identity. And I know, as I say, this is the lyrics, the thing.

But I just the more I delved into his voice, I thought, you know what? He really was a farce and is a fascinating performer.

And that's the point is, with the exception of this covid interruptus, he intends to resume touring even though he's going to turn 84 on the 30th of this month.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it's incredible. And just to go back to to the interview in the Post, you know, it put us all to shame that the interviewer said that he'd met him. He'd met Johnny Mathis at five, 30 a.m. He was in the gym on a bike, on his exercise bike. And he, Johnny Mathis, said to me, said he had felt that the age thing starts to creep in when he turned 18.

And he said he's ridiculous. He's perpetually touring.

And he and, of course, obviously was pretty covid, you know, but he says what, he's on stage.

He said everything counts. So he has to have this kind of strict regime. And you know me, I was afraid to read on in case he went on talking about how we go skiing every year with his parents. But anyway, I know the old guys are the best, but he's got two titanium hips and he's got a really well preserved voice, so there's no sign of him slowing down. And he says he always sings the twelfth of never in his shows.

You know, I just laugh themselves at the 12th and never sounds like a retirement date for him, you know? But yeah, you know, I mean, I was looking at this career, you know, and I was thinking about picking a song like that for today. You know, I was thinking about, you know, significance, relevance, all of those things.

But I you know, I see the music is always relevant and, you know, it doesn't matter what what sort of era it's from. And you look at lines like, hold me close, never let me go home. Closemouthed, my heart's like April snow. I mean, that'll always have relevance for me and its significance. I'm the guy who wrote I almost forgot to mention him, which is terrible, called Frances Webster. He was born well over 100 years ago and he wrote kind of tunes like Whip Crack Away, Tender is the Night.

Love is a Many Splendored Thing, The Shadow of Your Smile, Secret Love. And he also wrote the lyric for the Spider-Man theme as well. So now I've gone all around the houses, as they say in football. Maybe it's maybe it's time for a song. Right? Well, here it is.

Paul on piano, the twelfth of Never written by Paul Francis Webster and Jerry Livingston.

Take it away, Paul. I need you, must I? Mike Rogers NE. You ask how long? I love you. I'll still be like you. For me. Would like snow. I love you to the clover has lost its. I love you to the poets, but I love Ron. And it's a long. Paul Harrington and the 12th of Never Beautiful, beautiful version.