The Best Songs: Storybook Love by Willy DeVille

“It was Mark (Knopfler’s) wife Lourdes who came up with the idea (to record Miracle). She said to him that you don’t sing like Willy and he doesn’t play guitar like you, but you really like his stuff so why don’t you do an album together? So I went over to London to do this album. It wasn’t easy because we didn’t want it to sound like a Dire Straits album, and his guitar playing is so unique that it was hard to do. But nothing good is going to be easy. I know that I spent the whole time really trying to impress Mark, I wanted it to be good.”
– Willy DeVille (2006)

The album includes what is probably the best known Willy DeVille song — Storybook Love, it is also one of his best songs among many many great ones.

Willy DeVille (with Mark Knopfler on guitar) – Storybook Love (music video, studio version, Princess Bride soundtrack):

The song is a classic love song and it is strange that it wasn’t written specifically for the movie The Princess Bride, if I didn’t know better I would say that Rob Reiner took the story from the song and made a film.

Mark Knopfler talks about Willy DeVille and the production of Miracle (some of it in German, but hey, we all understand German right?  🙂  ):

The song became the theme of the movie The Princess Bride and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1987. Willy DeVille performed it at that year’s Academy Award ceremony.

“Knopfler heard (“Storybook Love”) and asked if I knew about this movie he was doing. It was a Rob Reiner film about a princess and a prince. The song was about the same subject matter as the film, so we submitted it to Reiner and he loved it. About six or seven months later, I was half asleep when the phone rang. It was the Academy of Arts and Sciences with the whole spiel. I hung up on them! They called back and Lisa (his wife) answered the phone. She came in to tell me that I was nominated for “Storybook Love.” It’s pretty wild. It’s not the Grammys — it’s the Academy Awards, which is different for a musician. Before I knew it, I was performing on the awards show with Little Richard. It was the year of Dirty Dancing, and they won.”
– Willy DeVille

Lyrics:
Come my love, I’ll tell you a tale
Of a boy and girl, and their love story,
And how he loved her oh, so much,
And all the charms she did possess.

Chorus:
My love is like a storybook story.
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel.
My love is like a storybook story.
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel;
It’s as real as the feelings I feel.

Now this did happen once upon a time
When things were not so complex,
And how he worshipped the ground she walked.
When he looked in her eyes, he became obsessed.

Chorus:
My love is like a storybook story.
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel.
My love is like a storybook story.
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel;
It’s as real as the feelings I feel.

This love was stronger than the powers so dark,
A prince could have within his keeping;
His spells to weave and steal a heart
Within her breast, but only sleeping.

Chorus:
My love is like a storybook story.
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel.
My love is like a storybook story.
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel;
It’s as real as the feelings I feel.

He said, “Don’t you know I love you oh, so much,
And lay my heart at the foot of your dress? ”
She said, “Don’t you know that storybook loves
Always have a happy ending? ”
Then he swooped her up, just like in the books,
And on his stallion they rode away.

Chorus:
My love is like a storybook story.
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel.
My love is like a storybook story.
But it’s as real as the feelings I feel;
It’s as real as the feelings I feel.

At the Oscars (with very “hissy” audio):

Last, here’s a wonderful live version from 2002, Willy DeVille – Storybook love:

And another great rendition from Italy, october 2005:

– Hallgeir