Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think)

Album: The Best of Guy Lombardo (1950)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The Brill Building songwriter Carl Sigman wrote this with his good friend Herb Magidson (writer of the first Academy Award-winning song, "The Continental"). Sigman's son Michael tells the story in The Carl Sigman Songbook:
    Herb was struggling with the excellent but rather unmotivated writer Benny Oakland on a song suggested by an old Chinese proverb. The song wasn't going anywhere, so Herb asked Carl if he would step in for Benny, which was more than fine with Benny. After only a brief get-together, Carl and Herb, a Los Angeleno, wrote the multi-versed song over the phone. It was most memorably recorded by Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians with Kenny Gardner as vocalist. The song's refrain - "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think/Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink/The years go by, as quickly as a wink/Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself/It's later than you think" - couldn't get much more universal, and began to illuminate Carl's instinct for capitalizing on common conversational phrases. As he told Newsday in an interview shortly before he passed away, "I was always listening, reading or looking for everyday expressions. I strive to make conversational lyrics - that's my strength - like 'Did anyone call?' or 'I'll never forgive myself.'" "Enjoy Yourself" is still played every New Year's Eve all over the English-speaking world. In addition to covers by Bing Crosby, Doris Day, and Louis Prima, it was revived by the English ska band The Specials in 1980, and reappeared in 2005 as a Country number by Todd Snider. It also has been used on motion picture soundtracks (Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You) and was featured in a Mercedes commercial that ran during the 2000 Olympics coverage.

Comments: 2

  • Jéssica from Gyn, BrazilWoody Allen's movie: Everybody sas Ilove you. Fantastic!!!!!
  • Carrie from Roanoke, VaI can't believe no one has mentioned this song. It's hauntingly beautiful. House hallucinated Amber singing this song to him in a bar.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Jim McCarty of The Yardbirds

Jim McCarty of The YardbirdsSongwriter Interviews

The Yardbirds drummer explains how they created their sound and talks about working with their famous guitarists.

American Hits With Foreign Titles

American Hits With Foreign TitlesSong Writing

What are the biggest US hits with French, Spanish (not "Rico Suave"), Italian, Scottish, Greek, and Japanese titles?

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss): A History Of Abuse Pop

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss): A History Of Abuse PopSong Writing

Songs that seem to glorify violence against women are often misinterpreted - but not always.

The Police

The PoliceFact or Fiction

Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.

Laura Nyro

Laura NyroSongwriting Legends

Laura Nyro talks about her complex, emotionally rich songwriting and how she supports women's culture through her art.