SAN DIEGO—Harriet Wingard, daughter of the late Hal Wingard, culls through his collection of songs each week, typically finding some commonality that binds them into a single presentation. The commonality in those below? Harriet reports that she had never heard any of them previously, and thus this project enables her to continue to learn about her father, who SDJW readers and listeners know to have been a most remarkable man. To access other songs in Hal's collection, please click here. To hear these, please click on the large titles above the lyrics.

#234 -- Your Way
#235 -- The Search
#270 -- Come Back to Me

#234, Your Way

I gotta play the game. . .your way,
Or you hang on to the ball.
I gotta cook dinner. . .your way,
Or you won't eat it at all.

You want me to do whatever I do
Just the way your whim is wanting me to.
You want me to be what never is me,
A me only you want to see.

I gotta make love. . .your way,
Or you won't make love at all.
I gotta play the game. . .your way,
Or you hang on to the ball.

Well, you can do what you want to do
Any way that you may ever want to;
But I won't be what's really not me
Just to be what you want to see.

So, you can have the game. . .your way,
Alone, you can play with the ball;
And you can make love. . .your way.
Alone, you won't need me at all.

(c) 2009 Estate of Hal Wingard; Words and melody written January 14, 1994, at home, tired of desk work.

#235, The Search

Whatever else I do,
I search the world for you,
Just looking wide and far
For where you are.

I won't despair.
I know you're there,
Although I don't know where.

Where ever you may be
You hide identity.
In passing on the street
We never meet.

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I won't despair.
I know you're there,
Although I don't know where.

I feel that you exist,
And if I just persist
In searching as I go,
You soon will show.

I won't despair.
I know you're there,
Although I don't know where.

But should my life be through
Without my finding you,
When all is said and done,
The search itself was fun.

I won't despair.
I know you're there,
Although I don't know where.

(c) 2009 Estate of Hal Wingard; In celebration of there, wherever there may be, March 14, 1994. Words inspired by the unintentionally unaware "re-creation" of the melody to Oh, Demon Jealousy, followed by the proper creation of an original melody, in an attempt to avoid the work I should have been doing.

#270, Come Back To Me

I can’t go on
Now you are gone.
I think of you
In all I do.

Come back to me.
Come back to me.

You went away,
Left me to pay.
How could I know
I had no dough?

Come back to me.
Come back to me.

The waiter came,
Put me to shame.
I wash each dish
With just one wish:

Come back to me.
Come back to me.

(c) 2009 Estate of Hal Wingard; To Walter and Audrey
March 28, 1999. In Germany, melody created March 27, 1999, in Radolfzell, at the home of Beate and Gero Kempf. Text created next day in Alpirsbach, at the home of Audrey and Walter Pfeil.

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Hal Wingard died May 25, 2009 at age 83 in San Diego. He was an educator who specialized in methodologies for foreign language teaching and had served on the California State Curriculum Commission. His wife, Eileen, a retired symphony violinist and occasional contributor to San Diego Jewish World, survives him, along with three daughters and a son.