“There Will Never Be Another… Nelson Riddle. When I was a teenager, I went to South Africa. It was my first big trip alone and I traveled 17 hours on a plane to stay with a family near Pietmartizburg for the summer. It was the start of my Wanderlust.
One day I was left to my own devices in the city. The movie theatre was playing a matinee of John Irving’s ’The World According to Garp’ which, coincidentally, I had only just read. So, it seemed a no-brainer. I made a snap decision, bought a ticket and made it to my seat just as the opening credits began to roll. I think this was probably my first time in a movie theatre alone, too. I felt so independent. It was wonderful!
Everything about the movie captivated me, the exoticness of being alone on the other side of the world resonated with Garp’s wide-eyed outlook. But seeing Irving’s poignant story on screen with its amazing cast of Robin Williams and Glenn Close, it was the soundtrack that most captivated my imagination. There is a scene that will stay with me my whole life, when Garp and Helen leave their children at home with the babysitter to go out for date night. But once they reach the car in the driveway and see the tableau of the lit house and their beautiful little family through the living room window, they realize they can’t go anywhere. Instead, they spend the evening in their car, enjoying the scene as if at a drive-in movie. They switch on the radio and that is when the magic happens… As they sink down in their seats, the music begins to play. The sighing strings announce the tender romance of the moment, and Nat King Cole’s voice floats out of the car’s radio and fills the theatre. “This is our last dance together, tonight soon will be long ago…Yes, I may dream a million dreams, but how can they come true, If there will never ever be another you?”