"Magic Moments" is a popular song composed by

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. Start ...

and written by

Hal David Harold Lane David (May 25, 1921 – September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick. Early life David was born and raised in New ...

, being one of the first songwriting collaborations by that duo. This song was recorded by

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987 ...

and released in 1957 as the B-side of his " Catch a Falling Star"; it reached No. 1 in the UK in 1958.

Background

In his 2003 book ''Burt Bacharach, Song by Song'', Serene Dominic comments:

Chart performance

The biggest hit

version Version may refer to: Computing * Software version, a set of numbers that identify a unique evolution of a computer program * VERSION (CONFIG.SYS directive), a configuration directive in FreeDOS Music * Cover version * Dub version * Remix * ''V ...

of the song was recorded by

and released by

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

in December 1957, becoming a hit early in 1958. The record was produced by Joe Reisman. The peak position in the United States is hard to track precisely, due to the multiple charts used in ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine: On the Most Played by Disc Jockeys chart, it reached it highest peak of number four. The song was also a 1958 hit in Italy, while in the United Kingdom it spent eight weeks at number one in the UK Singles Chart, becoming Como's biggest ever hit there. In Canada, the song reached number 12 on the

CHUM Chart The CHUM Chart is a long-running Canadian hit parade countdown radio show, originally aired on Toronto radio station CHUM AM then later revived on its sister station CHUM-FM. It consisted of 50 top tunes from May 1957 to July 1968, but in Augus ...

s, February 3, 1958, co-charting with '' Catch a Falling Star''.

Other recordings

*A less successful UK cover version recorded by

Ronnie Hilton Ronnie Hilton (born Adrian Hill; 26 January 1926 – 21 February 2001) was an English singer. According to his obituary in ''The Guardian'' newspaper, "For a time Hilton was a star – strictly for home consumption – with nine Top 20 hits be ...

reached No. 22 on the UK Singles Chart, in 1958. Hilton's version included some different lyrics from the original. *

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...

recorded the song in 1958 for use on his

radio show A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production, or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode. Radio netw ...

and it was subsequently included in the album ''With All My Heart'' (2012). *

Amanda Lear Amanda Lear (; born 18 June or 18 November 1939 or 1941 or 1946 or 1950) is a French singer, songwriter, painter, television presenter, actress and former model. She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s and went on ...

recorded this song for her 1985 EP '' A L''. *

Synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

duo

Erasure Erasure may refer to: Arts and media * Erasure (duo), an English pop group * ''Erasure'' (album), 1995, by the British group Erasure * Erasure poetry, a form of found poetry created by erasing words from an existing text * ''Erasure'' (novel), ...

recorded the song for their 1997 album ''

Cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

''.

Other uses

*''Magic Moments'' is also the name given to a '' Surprise, Surprise'' style show within the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television film ''

Pat and Margaret ''Pat and Margaret'' is a British television film written by comedian Victoria Wood. The story follows sisters Margaret, a cook, and Pat, a successful actress in the United States, after they are reunited on a television programme after spendi ...

''. Its theme music is the song itself and as the coach carrying various members of the audience sets off at the start of the film, they start singing it. *This song was used in the television commercial for Quality Street, a confectionery brand in the UK in the 1980s and continues to be used each year for the brand's Christmas advertisements. *The song is also occasionally sung by

Ulster Rugby Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the Irish regional pool of the United Rugby Championship and in the European Rugby Champions Cup, each of which they have won ...

fans at away matches, particularly after 'magic moments' of play. *The

version is featured in the 1998 film, ''

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream'' is a 1971 novel in the gonzo journalism style by Hunter S. Thompson. The book is a ''roman à clef'', rooted in autobiographical incidents. The story fol ...

'', when Raoul arrives at a Vegas hotel where Dr. Gonzo is located, briefly in Alex Holeh Ahavah (1986),

Dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...

(1999), ''

Police Academy A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or to o ...

'' (1984), ''

Two Weeks Notice ''Two Weeks Notice'' is a 2002 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Marc Lawrence and starring Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant, with Alicia Witt, Dana Ivey, Robert Klein, and Heather Burns. In the film, an idealistic, liberal ...

'' (2002), '' Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason'' (2004), ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' (2005), Episode 3 of the first season of the 2012 BBC series ''

Call the Midwife ''Call the Midwife'' is a British period drama television series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The principal cast of the show has included Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, ...

'', which is set in 1957, and episode 9 of the 2017 Netflix series '' Glow''. *The song was also used as background music for a segment on the 1998

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

From the Earth to the Moon ''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' () is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, and their attempts to build an en ...

'' featuring a meeting of NASA Astronaut Group 2 – The New Nine – all of whom booked into The Rice Hotel in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Texas, with the code name "Max Peck". *The Erasure recording is featured in the

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1980s with a series of short stories collectively named the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading horror author ...

film ''

Lord of Illusions ''Lord of Illusions'' is a 1995 American neo-noir supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his own short story ''The Last Illusion'' published in 1985 in the anthology ''Books of Blood'' Volume 6. The same story intr ...

'', providing the background music to a magicians' convention. *Song used in the

Grupo Arcor Grupo Arcor is an Argentine food company specialized in confectionery. The firm was founded on July 5, 1951 in the city of Arroyito, Córdoba. It specializes in the production of foodstuff, sugar and chocolate confectionery, cookies and ice cream ...

commercial in 2020–21. *The main melody and whistling section was also sampled by rapper Shotgun Willy for his song "Wendy", a love song he wrote about the animated spokeswoman Wendy from

Wendy's Wendy's International, LLC, is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas (businessman), Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of D ...

References

{{authority control Perry Como songs 1957 songs 1958 singles UK singles chart number-one singles Songs with music by Burt Bacharach Songs with lyrics by Hal David 1950s jazz standards Songs about nostalgia RCA Victor singles United States National Recording Registry recordings