Frank Sinatra - September Song Lyrics






[Lengthy Intro:]
When I was a young man courting the girls
I played me a waiting game
If a maid refused me with tossing curls
I'd let the old Earth make a couple of whirls
While I plied her with tears in lieu of pearls
And as time came around she came my way
As time came around, she came

When you meet with the young girls early in the Spring
You court them in song and rhyme
They answer with words and a clover ring
But if you could examine the goods they bring
They have little to offer but the songs they sing
And the plentiful waste of time of day
A plentiful waste of time

Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
September, November
And these few precious days I'll spend with you
These precious days I'll spend with you





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Frank Sinatra September Song Comments
  1. C.... S....

    What a craftsman!

  2. J.... B....

    He can sing any song and make it a masterpiece.....Miss him

  3. J.... B....

    My baby Julie had been born that year. All I did was listen to the radio for her and me too

  4. R.... E....

    How good is this

  5. M.... O....

    I did not appreciate Mr. Sinatra as I was growing up. But what a beautiful song masterfully sung by the master himself.

  6. P.... ....

    every 1st of september i come back, who else?

  7. L.... C....

    Really listen to the lyrics...no one has ever come close to the phrasing and beauty of Sinatra. What a gorgeous song.

  8. P.... T....

    Spectacular

  9. M.... R....

    The voice of experience; the voice a master artist...

  10. w.... d....

    Utterly magnificent.

  11. J.... S....

    Walter Huston's only hit.

    .

  12. J.... S....

    It's extraordinary how Sinatra can take almost any song and "own" it.

    .

  13. B.... C....

    I’m in love with Jessica Lange’s cover .

  14. D.... N....

    I do Karaoke . Sometimes I find the right material sometimes I don't . I can sing fairly well and I am not a Professional but it is like , my goodness, these songs pick or reject you and your voice even if you love them and are moved by them. This one obviously let Sinatra in . It wouldn't admit me !

  15. B.... M....

    I’ve been fortunate to see Sinatra in concert 5 times.......like this very much, but my favorite version is by Walter Huston...

    https://youtu.be/E3mAT-4FdP4

  16. B.... A....

    Nice , wonderful

  17. C.... S....

    This song was played at my wedding. It's so beautiful.

  18. M.... M....

    September of my heart, i love you...

  19. M.... X....

    ‘...And these few precious days I'll spend with you
    These precious days I'll spend with you’

  20. L.... g....

    Now , we are in September !

  21. B.... B....

    Wasn't this the song that got Milton Berle banned from Saturday Night Live?

  22. M.... D....

    This is a masterpiece

  23. k.... 1....

    What a gorgeous song to end the album "September of My Years." Love the pretty part at the very end.

  24. R.... L....

    What a curious difference between the 1962 version, which immediately let me down, AND this three years later.........surely no greater deepening...Perhaps engineering is such an important part of a recording that we may barely begin to understand its achievements.........this is richer, deeper, the "later" Sinatra that I love----not the 1940's "boy"-------noooo...............

    R.... L....

    Raymond Louis Llompart I couldn't agree more. Gordon Jenkins was an absolute master of the melancholy arrangement. His strings breathe autumn in the literal and metaphorical sense all over this album. I have to sweep up the leaves after every sitting

  25. F.... k....

    Merci Sinatra... Je vais essayer d'interpreter ce titre... Lovely !

  26. D.... G....

    The Voice! Unique Sinatra! Merveilleux Sinatra!

  27. K.... C....

    such an eloquent phraser of a song i feel it safe to say frank was the greatest singer who ever walked this earth

  28. G.... O....

    Wonderful! (UK)

  29. H.... R....

    THE VOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  30. A.... ....

    as a professional singer (opera and oratorio) I can, I hope, comment: diction - perfect; musical line - excellent; use od dynamics perfect. What a vocal lesson! And beautiful song, too!

  31. K.... C....

    evertime i listen to him it gets better thank you frank and thank you to all the musicians and arrangers and songwriters who gave us this wonderful beautiful music and had the knowledge to know that frank sinatra was the voice i love him and miss him so much god bless

  32. M.... D....

    My great grandmother use to play this song on the piano

  33. B.... M....

    my favorite Sinatra album, and I have them all - Brilliant!

    B.... M....

    i agree this is a brilliant album....made the more so the older i get.

    B.... M....

    Also my very favorite Sinatra album.

  34. M.... G....

    My mother died six months ago and this was in my CD player the morning she was cremated. It was late March, and I was following the little van carrying her remains in my own car, and it was talking about Spring and "a plentiful waste of time of day," over and over again. When we pulled into the cemetary, "My Way" started. How much sun there was that morning. I'm still not over the shock (no matter how sick they are it's always unbearable) , and Sinatra's music has helped me more, understood the pain better, than most people. Those last few precious days I spent with her - her funeral.

    M.... G....

    Sorry about your loss. Losing one's Mother is hard for all of us as her heart is always a piece of Heaven for all of us.  But she is better off than we are.   We must still suffer here a lot and She won't.  And when you die you shall see her again and there shall be no more separations.  Hope you'll soon feel better.  Regards.

  35. J.... M....

    Very nice nostalgic song as September is when summer ends and autumn begins.   Very good to hear now we're in autumn.  In life we also enter our autumn and cannot wait much longer to do what we must as we might not get another chance.  So let us live our autumn with those we love showing we really care.

  36. B.... n....

    I prefer the other version of September Song Frank recorded.. though this is amazing

  37. M.... H....

    Love this song. The arrangement and the Sinatra rendering are just wonderful.

  38. M.... ....

    My mom used to play this when I was a kid, and I remembered it so well, but it was out of print, and unavailable for years. I finally found a practically mint copy in a used record store, (~ $10, but I would have paid $50...) and as I played it, I realized I actually still knew most of it by heart after ~30 years. I guess it just got in my blood? (Now I am older than Sinatra was when he recorded it.) God! It goes *fast*!! Gordon Jenkins arrangements are...well, it just doesn't get any better. ♫

    M.... ....

    When I was a little girl all my Mother wanted for Christmas was this album. I'll never forget how thrilled she was to receive it. She saw him when she was 10 at the Paramount and then again in the 70's at MSG. She raised us on his music our whole lives. I am 59 and still love him. There was no one like him. All these songs remind me of her and my Father.

    M.... ....

    I bet I was just as happy as your mom to finally find a copy of this after so many years! Sinatra's phrasing is vivid, and dazzling. It's my "you get to take one lp to a desert island" album! ♫

  39. F.... R....

    FRANK SINATRA - September Song (with lyrics)
    Yo tenía 10 años cuando Sinatra cantó la canción de septiembre
    Cuando yo era un joven cortejando a las chicas
    Yo jugué el juego de la espera
    Si una criada se rehusaba a darme sus rizos
    Yo dejaba que la tierra diera más de un par de giros
    Mientras contaba mis las lágrimas como perlas
    Y con el tiempo la vuelta se daba a mi manera
    Con el tiempo me tocaba a mi ganar

    Cuando se reunen con las chicas jóvenes a principio de la primavera
    con canciones y rimas
    Ellos vienen con palabras y un anillo del trébol
    Pero si ellas pudieran examinar las mercancías que ellos traen
    se darían cuenta que tienen poco que ofrecer, pero las canciones que cantan
    las distraen durante tantas horas del día
    Una pérdida abundante de tiempo


    Oh, es un tiempo largo, largo tiempo de mayo a diciembre
    Pero los días se hacen cortos cuando llegue septiembre
    Cuando el tiempo de otoño las hojas se vuelven como llamas
    Uno no tiene tiempo ya para el juego de la espera
    Oh, los días reducen a unos pocos preciosos
    En septiembre, noviembre
    Y en esos días son muy pocos los que voy a pasar con usted
    pero esos preciosos días los pasaré con usted

  40. m.... ....

    In my opinion his greatest and best album. A mature man and voice with the pathos of rememberance.

  41. G.... W....

    Trust Sinatra to make this song something other than it should be.Too clever and too long.Walter Huston got it right,and he ain't that good a singer!

    G.... W....

    Not too long at all. This tells a story, from youth to the later years of life, it enhances, not detracts from.

    G.... W....

    Notice this version is a minute shorter than Huston's.

    G.... W....

    @mrbarsoomian Actually Huston recorded 2 versions; one with the intro, and one without; one is 1m shorter, the other 1m longer than Sinatra's. They're both masters in their own rights, and both credible. Huston was a better actor, and Sinatra was a better singer. ♫

    G.... W....

    really? can i borrow your stopwatch?

    G.... W....

    i think they both won one oscar..and i am a big fan of walter houston....buttt comparing them as you did as if to imply houston was on par with Sinatra as a singer or could even be in such an argument is the thought of an idiot.

  42. J.... E....

    Anyone hear Jimmy Durante do this song? ;) I do love this version the best, but everyone needs to hear the schnoz do it at least once.

    J.... E....

    I heard that Milton Berle did this song on Saturday Night Live and it got him banned from the show for life, is that true?

    J.... E....

    No, never----but remember that NOW (for good......and bad) we have this MASSIVE INDEX called.....well, mostly Google--------and everything can be found!!!.........I am 55 and spent DECADES at the public library, learning, researching----yet, NO MORE...........It is all (overwhelmingly,,,,) HERE!!!......Let's go check!!!........By the way, they say many things about him, but he is a distant one for me.......1------this huuuge (pardon the pun....) old "rumor" of OUTSIZE proportions........well, who cares?........AND.....which has just about disappeared---------his DRAG!! Uuugh!! Ugly because he was "ugly", but a man who loves to get up there and show himself in drag may be two things:: he is gay, most probably even unknown to him (the worst way....) OR he is "so" straight that he is totally comfortable with his feminine side (I can think only of Mick Jagger with his androgyny, and yet I am almost sure that although he may have dabbled with gay sex, he is 100% straight).....That is a RARE man...(I am gay, so I cannot say WHAT he experiences)--------to be unafraid of your feminine side (and all men have one) and comfortable is extraordinary because masculinity is such a "PRISON"!.....Men are afraid of EVEN a label for a deodorant if it looks too feminine----WHY?!.....He's deeply insecure about his masculinity!!!!!...Oh well----------whay is your opinioin?..........(Insomnia at 2:00 AM in NYCity!!)....cheers....

    J.... E....

    The great schnozzola did a masterful job with this song.

    J.... E....

    They made a film together in the 40s. If a song comes from the heart duo.

  43. C.... ....

    I have come to appreciate this song more now that I am entering the September of MY years at the age of 66. Thanks for posting this lovely and poignant song by Mr. Sinatra, the "King of Sing".

    C.... ....

    I, too, am 66 and agree totally with you about "the September of our years"!

    C.... ....

    Wisdom, somehow, as a protective "mechanism" seems to trick us, only come in flashes throughout our youth (especially if one is handsome and popular) that invincibility was not genetically pre-programmed for us humans who must grow old (those that are "lucky"?) and die..........Actually, the key to a successful old age, as any Buddhist may tell you, is to be as "in the present" as much as we can................but even then there's a lot of caveats in such sayings....

    C.... ....

    Yes…as I age, it rings all the more truer….

    C.... ....

    Interesting that now many would feel one’s sixties are their September. Back then, this was more in line with one’s forties. That’s a good thing, I think, how our lives have lengthened expectations. I hope your autumn and winter are long and cozy!

  44. E.... S....

    Very few people knew Frank smoked a cigarette while singing many of his greatest ballads. When he was asked once: Why do you do it (sing) when smoking? He answered an older friend of mine who was in-studio that the smoke gave his voice a "nice hollow re-verb-" and was (in his mind) a direct part of his lyrical orchestration, and he puffed, a short puff too, where he felt words in a song needed that hollow-ring. Now, I would say: that's some classy immortalized smoke.

    E.... S....

    never heard this before would be interested where you heard it..but to suggest very few people knew Sinatra smoked when singing just isnt true...since Frank always had a crowd at his recording sessions and the few available for mass viewing show him smoking as well....besides Sinatra was a heavy smoker....why would anyone not think he smoked while recording since he smoked in every episode of his tv show...

    E.... S....

    Wasn't it Jack Daniels and Camel cigarettes he liked ? Nat King Cole used cigarettesfor his singing voice and he paid the price for it. Frank Sinatra seemed immune to it but he did loses his voice once and his throat bled or at least that is what I read ! Perosnally I like his wizened years the best from the 1960's onward ! His voice had an urban saturated steely manly magnetism to its tone !

  45. E.... S....

    Peyton B. to have lived and nightclubbed in the 60-ties, and early 70-ties, in NYC/Vegas, and to have WATCHED Sinatra and The Rat Pack he led, along with so many other great singers like Peggy Lee, Bobby Darin, or instrumental bands like Herb Alpert, etc. etc., then you would have seen the magic up close. The great love writers have been replaced by con-con-rappers who merely spend their 'precious years' in existential angst. What a waste!  Their music is NOTHING; so listen to the great ones I've mentioned and be tuned-into-High Existence. Thank-you, for reminding me of my ofl driends who are nearly all gone. This world of the last 10 years they would ALL throw-up on, the worst acid from their immortal bodies and souls.

  46. E.... S....

    Maxwell Anderson wrote the lyrics; Weill wrote the melody; and Frank Sinatra made it IMMORTAL.

    E.... S....

    Who could possibly ask for more than that-damn!

  47. A.... A....

    Questa canzone mi fa piangere ! Non mi vergogno di ammetterlo.

  48. J.... M....

    I've always liked this song but specially when sung by the incomparable Frank Sinatra. His voice was great and gave a special meaning to this great song.  Frank Sinatra is for me the best male Singer America has had.

  49. k.... ....

    For me not a single day without Sinatra's songs, he turns every song into a masterpiece, the way he sings a liryc,,,simply the greatest of all times.

    k.... ....

    knarfartanis me too !

  50. R.... C....

    Just think of all the beautiful women who listened to this.  This is defining the romantic period of music. Can we be proud that America produced something this great ? you bet. rpc

    R.... C....

    @Richard Condon I think this song was written by Kurt Weill so you have Germany to thank too :-D

    R.... C....

    @BaronVonPenguin danke, Deutschland.

    R.... C....

    Indeed a beautiful song!

    And our auld Frankie was also born to Italian immigrants!
    So:
    Grazie immigrazione.

  51. P.... S....

    Thank You So very. much. for God giving me.the sense of hearing, for Ol Blue eyes.

  52. L.... R....

    Frank che bei ricordi !! Sei sempre il mio MAESTRO !!!

  53. R.... ....

    This wouldn't seem to be an easy song to sing. Many artists have recorded it, but Sinatra's rendition is probably the best of them all.

    R.... ....

    +Rossbach2 I agree. For me it is the best version period.  HIs voice was simply marvelous.  He really had a gift for singing.

    R.... ....

    I’d beg to differ, as this song simply belongs to Sarah Vaughan. But Gorme and Sinatra did capture the melancholy well, I think. Trust Sinatra for knowing how to set middle age to poignant music, that is certain.

    R.... ....

    Listen to Jeff Lynes version

  54. m.... ....

    Unbeatable Frankie....one of the best singers ever.  Thanks for posting this lovely share.

    m.... ....

    No one can even come close to Frank...

    m.... ....

    +maureen1938 I agree with You. Frank Sinatra is probably the best male Singer America has had. He had a great voice and every song he sang became special just because he sang it.

  55. t.... ....

    Every word is lived and not simply "sung." One of Mr. Sinatra's true masterpiece collection of recordings - one that just seems to get greater with every passing year. Maybe it was supposed to be that way.

  56. T.... ....

    Those Jenkins arrangements are masterpieces. Sinatra respected and drove his arrangers to do their best, but Jenkins was special. Sinatra flat out adored working with him. No complaints, no criticisms of his arrangements - ever. I mean, the intro to "Laura" from the "Where are You?" album lasts almost a full minute! The Jenkins biography written by his son, Bruce, is an amazing portrait of that rare thing: the creative genius who didn't make life rough for everyone around him.

  57. R.... ....

    ♥♥♥

  58. T.... ....

    I remember listening to this as a little kid thinking how strange to be 50.Now to be on the other side.Frank was never better&that says a lot!:)

  59. D.... W....

    How poignant and how true. When this was recorded in 1965 I was 30 years old, knew everything and would fight the world... Now I know better, young men think they know it all, old men know they don't. If only the young of today would stand back, calm down and learn to live in harmony, what a better place the world would be, let music like this be the conduit, kick out the aggression in today's crap before we all disappear into oblivion.

  60. H.... ....

    I couldn't agree more! Frank was a unique wonder. His stuff is still the best music to in love to. Always relaxes me, makes me glad to be where I am, and makes me feel just fine with life.

  61. B.... ....

    Everything Happens to me is a gem!! All My Tomorrows is one of his greatest songs isn't it but not too many people are aware of it sadly.

  62. F.... R....

    I love this album, too, Baron!! It's right up there with "In The Wee Small Hours," "Where Are You," "Nice 'N' Easy," "The Concert Sinatra," "Moonlight Sinatra," "She Shot Me Down," and that incredible 1996 compilation album, "Everything Happens To Me." (His youngest daughter, Tina, worked very hard with Frank on the latter.) It is a marvelous assortment of love ballads...and I strongly recommend it. (Keep the Jack Daniels handy as you listen!!!!)

  63. B.... ....

    It's his best album in my opinion. Obviously nobody sounded like Frank Sinatra (though many tried and indeed still do) but no one and I mean NO ONE arranged strings like Gordon Jenkins and the coupling of the two is just breathtaking. September of My Years along with Where Are You? are my seminal autumn favourites. As you say the honesty in how he sang these songs is nothing short of genius.

  64. F.... R....

    From Sinatra's marvelous "September Of My Years" album, released in 1965, nobody ever sang this song with more sincerity than Frank. Mr. S sang to us with such depth of feeling because he had experienced the loneliness, anguish, heartache, and despair of his own past. Once you've been there, your story is much more credible!! Sinatra was honest--singing a song was much more than a game to him.

  65. B.... ....

    I totally agree! Ye can hear it all through this album.