The World We Knew (Over And Over)

Like his earlier hit "Strangers in the Night," this ballad from Frank Sinatra was based on a composition by German musician Bert Kaempfert. Sinatra hated the former tune but it brought him enormous success, so it's not surprising he revisited Kaempfert's catalog for his 1967 album The World We Knew with the "Strangers" team, arranger Ernie Freeman and producer Jimmy Bowen, back on board. But according to Bowen, it was Kaempfert's testy melodies that piqued Sinatra's interest. "Sinatra used to laugh at me. I think he was just challenging me to see if we could do it or not," Bowen told Sinatra! The Song Is You author Will Friedwald. "And he used to laugh because Kaempfert's melodies were always testy. 'Strangers In The Night' is not easy to sing. And 'The World We Knew' - oh, God, what a hard song to sing!'"

Kaempfert's songwriting partner Herbert Rehbein is also credited as a composer on the track, along with lyricist Carl Sigman, a prolific songwriter who also wrote the English lyrics to songs like Frankie Laine's "Answer Me" and Percy Faith's "Till."

Sinatra knew his way around a love song, especially of the brokenhearted variety. This time around, he's singing in anguish about a romance that was full of promise until the woman he loved fell out of love with him. At the time, his marriage to actress Mia Farrow was on the rocks - they separated earlier in 1967 and were divorced a year later in August 1968.