January 13, 1946 – My Wonder One

Nelson Eddy, romantic.

On his January 13, 1946 episode of The Electric Hour radio show, he sang a song that he co-wrote with Ted Paxson. Ted wrote the music and Nelson the lyrics. It’s called My Wonder One, and his exquisite lyrics leave very little room for doubt as to the object of his adoration and muse of his writings.

Here are his lyrics:

My wonder one

My shining sun

I feel your thrilling vibration.

Your witching face,

Enchanting grace,

Have cast a spell of elation.

My magic you,

My dream come true

My world’s divinest creation.

My search is done

My prize is won

The wonder is, you’re mine!

I see in your smile

Something mesmerizing.

You have a winning guile

Your touch is magnetizing.

I stand before you in surrender,

How I adore you.

With a tender yearning

I am burning.

 I made a video tribute to this gorgeous thing, using Nelson’s performance from that show:

Side Note: I think it’s really interesting that when Nelson’s writing lyrics about BabyGirl, he sure does seem to yearn a lot. See above for his tender yearning-burning.

When he did a pilot for a tv show called Nelson Eddy’s Backyard, when they were broken up, he sang a song called Wish You Were Here, which he sings for the first time on the show while standing in front of a huge painting of Lake Tahoe, hint hint. When he sings it later in the show, he sings a slew of original lyrics that have never been heard of before or since (see Eddie Fisher’s version of the same song to see what I mean). He wishes he was “THERE in old Manhattan” (………guess who was in NYC….) and then he misses “where the scenery omits the greenery” and then he talks about the “silver studded twilight that shimmers through the TV antennas” (Um, do you wish to be in someone’s bedroom, sir? That seems like the kind of view one would have out a bedroom window.)  Anyway it’s all very sweet and “these memories fill me with a yearning, a hungry yearning beyond compare” — the poor dude is seriously missing his girl.  I mean, there’s no good legit reason for him to pick THIS song to sing on the show…of all the songs in the world to sing. That bit about these two talking to each other with their song choices is just eight hundred percent legit and that’s all—if you can’t see a thread here, welp, idk what you did with your soul but you might want to have that checked out.

Here’s a video of his performance with his original lyrics:

And here’s the one from the first time he sang it on the show, pipe the Lake Tahoe painting in the background. ❤

(Another side note: That’s Ted Paxson at the piano. Love him!)

Because let’s be honest literally effing NOBODY writes love songs about Ann Franklin.