Ray Conniff, In Memoriam - Orson's Song

[Harvey Chartrand]

Here are the lyrics to the musical oddity 'I Know What It Is To Be Young', "sung" by Orson Welles and arranged by the late bandleader and composer Ray Conniff. Does anyone know why Orson agreed to record this song with Conniff in the early eighties?

I KNOW WHAT IT IS TO BE YOUNG
When we are young, age has no meaning.
I never gave it a second thought
Until one day, along came this old man
And this is what he said to me,
Yes, this is what he said to me:
“I know what it is to be young
But you, you don’t know what it is to be old.
Someday, you’ll be saying the same thing.
Time takes away, so the story is told.
I have so many questions
For the wise man I met,
Couldn’t find all the answers
No one has theirs as yet .
There’ll be days to remember
Full of laughter and tears
After summer comes winter
So go the years.
So my friend, let’s make music together!
I’ll play the old while you sing me the new .
In time, when your young days are over
There’ll be someone sharing their time with you.”

[Jeff Wilson]

I would imagine the same reasons he did Transformers: The Movie: $$. It is a terrible song, in my own opinion. I said my piece about it on the site in the Audio section, though.