Roy Clark

Yesterday when I was young

So many happy songs were waiting to be sung,

So many wild pleasures lay in store for me

And so much pain my dazzled eyes refused to see. . . .

The game of love I played with arrogance and pride

And every flame I lit too quickly, quickly died.

The friends I made all seemed to drift away

And only I am left on stage to end the play.

There are so many songs in me that won't be sung,

I feel the bitter taste of tears upon my tongue.

The time has come for me to pay for

Yesterday when I was young.

(This song is an English version of Charles Aznavour's 1964 French hit, "Hier Encore."  Roy Clark recorded it in English in 1969.  Clark was a good friend of Mickey Mantle, who felt that the song could have been written about his life and insisted that Clark perform it at his funeral.  Mantle died of liver cancer on August 13, 1995.)