Music Friday: 'California Gold' Makes a Cameo in Lady Gaga's 'Always Remember Us This Way'
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you amazing songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Lady Gaga performs her breathtakingly beautiful masterpiece, "Always Remember Us This Way," from the blockbuster 2018 motion picture A Star is Born.
Gaga plays Ally, an aspiring singer/songwriter, whose career is set into motion by Jackson "Jack" Maine, a famous country rock star, played by Bradley Cooper. The two fall for each other and Ally professes her love in our featured song, which contains a first-verse reference to a famous 1849 gold rush.
She sings, "That Arizona sky burning in your eyes / You look at me and babe, I wanna catch on fire / It's buried in my soul like California gold / You found the light in me that I couldn't find."
Jack spontaneously proposes to Ally with a make-shift engagement ring made from an intricately twisted guitar string, and the couple weds the same day at a church ministered by a relative of their friend, Noodles.
Written by Gaga (under her birth name Stefani Germanotta) and three collaborators, "Always Remember Us This Way" became an international hit. It charted in 30 countries and was nominated for Song of the Year at the 62nd Grammy Awards. It eventually lost out to "Shallow," another Gaga song from the same film.
As of May 2021, "Always Remember Us This Way" has received over 600 million streams on Spotify, and the official video has been viewed on YouTube more than 317 million times.
The video starts with Jack encouraging an apprehensive Ally to sing her original song at the end of his concert. Ally sits at the piano and delivers a performance that has been called "mesmerizing," "emotional" and "powerful." Many YouTube commenters admitted that the song brought them to tears.
Please check out Gaga performing "Always Remember Us This Way." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…
"Always Remember Us This Way"
Written by Natalie Hemby, Hillary Lindsey, Stefani Germanotta and Lori McKenna. Performed by Lady Gaga.
That Arizona sky burning in your eyes
You look at me and babe, I wanna catch on fire
It's buried in my soul like California gold
You found the light in me that I couldn't find
So when I'm all choked up
But I can't find the words
Every time we say goodbye
Baby, it hurts
When the sun goes down
And the band won't play
I'll always remember us this way
Lovers in the night
Poets tryin' to write
We don't know how to rhyme
But, damn, we try
But all I really know
You're where I wanna go
The part of me that's you will never die
So when I'm all choked up
But I can't find the words
Every time we say goodbye
Baby, it hurts
When the sun goes down
And the band won't play
I'll always remember us this way
Oh, yeah
I don't wanna be just a memory, baby, yeah
Whooo, whooo, who who
Whooo, whooo, who who
Whooo, whooo, who who
When I'm all choked up
And I can't find the words
Every time we say goodbye
Baby, it hurts
When the sun goes down
And the band won't play
I'll always remember us this way, way, yeah
When you look at me
And the whole world fades
I'll always remember us this way
Gaga plays Ally, an aspiring singer/songwriter, whose career is set into motion by Jackson "Jack" Maine, a famous country rock star, played by Bradley Cooper. The two fall for each other and Ally professes her love in our featured song, which contains a first-verse reference to a famous 1849 gold rush.
She sings, "That Arizona sky burning in your eyes / You look at me and babe, I wanna catch on fire / It's buried in my soul like California gold / You found the light in me that I couldn't find."
Jack spontaneously proposes to Ally with a make-shift engagement ring made from an intricately twisted guitar string, and the couple weds the same day at a church ministered by a relative of their friend, Noodles.
Written by Gaga (under her birth name Stefani Germanotta) and three collaborators, "Always Remember Us This Way" became an international hit. It charted in 30 countries and was nominated for Song of the Year at the 62nd Grammy Awards. It eventually lost out to "Shallow," another Gaga song from the same film.
As of May 2021, "Always Remember Us This Way" has received over 600 million streams on Spotify, and the official video has been viewed on YouTube more than 317 million times.
The video starts with Jack encouraging an apprehensive Ally to sing her original song at the end of his concert. Ally sits at the piano and delivers a performance that has been called "mesmerizing," "emotional" and "powerful." Many YouTube commenters admitted that the song brought them to tears.
Please check out Gaga performing "Always Remember Us This Way." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…
"Always Remember Us This Way"
Written by Natalie Hemby, Hillary Lindsey, Stefani Germanotta and Lori McKenna. Performed by Lady Gaga.
That Arizona sky burning in your eyes
You look at me and babe, I wanna catch on fire
It's buried in my soul like California gold
You found the light in me that I couldn't find
So when I'm all choked up
But I can't find the words
Every time we say goodbye
Baby, it hurts
When the sun goes down
And the band won't play
I'll always remember us this way
Lovers in the night
Poets tryin' to write
We don't know how to rhyme
But, damn, we try
But all I really know
You're where I wanna go
The part of me that's you will never die
So when I'm all choked up
But I can't find the words
Every time we say goodbye
Baby, it hurts
When the sun goes down
And the band won't play
I'll always remember us this way
Oh, yeah
I don't wanna be just a memory, baby, yeah
Whooo, whooo, who who
Whooo, whooo, who who
Whooo, whooo, who who
When I'm all choked up
And I can't find the words
Every time we say goodbye
Baby, it hurts
When the sun goes down
And the band won't play
I'll always remember us this way, way, yeah
When you look at me
And the whole world fades
I'll always remember us this way
Credit: Screen captures via Youtube.com / Lady Gaga.