This is a song with a long and fascinating history. The music was written originally by a Russian, Boris Formin and called “Dorogoi Dlinnoyu” which roughly translates as “By The Long Road”. It was released twice in the 1920’s. Gene Raskin wrote English lyrics for it in the early 1960’s and it was recorded by both The Limelighters and Engelbert Humperdinck without much success. Paul MacCartney, however, heard it and loved it. He produced a version with Welsh singer, Mary Hopkins, which became an instant hit. The themes of the song are youth, aging and romantic idealism. In the Mary Hopkins cover, the lines, “In the glass I saw a strange reflection. Was that lonely person really me?” the word “person” (or sometimes “fellow”) becomes “woman” and a message about lost love is added. I have attached two youtubes. The first is Mary Hopkins. The second is the original song in Russian. The song has been covered in many languages and is universally known.