<P> "Memory" is a show tune from the 1981 musical Cats . It is sung by the character Grizabella, a one - time glamour cat who is now only a shell of her former self . The song is a nostalgic remembrance of her glorious past and a declaration of her wish to start a new life . Sung briefly in the first act and in full near the end of the show, "Memory" is the climax of the musical, and by far its most popular and best - known song . Elaine Paige originated the role of Grizabella in the West End production of Cats, the first to perform the song publicly on stage and bringing attention to its writers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Trevor Nunn, who received the 1981 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically . </P> <P> The lyric, written by Cats director Trevor Nunn, was loosely based on T.S. Eliot's poems "Preludes" and "Rhapsody on a Windy Night"." Andrew Lloyd Webber's former writing partner Tim Rice and contemporary collaborator Don Black submitted a lyric to the show's producers for consideration, although Nunn's version was favoured . Elaine Paige has said that she sang a different lyric to the tune of "Memory" for the first ten previews of Cats . </P> <P> Composer Lloyd Webber feared that the tune sounded too similar to Ravel's Bolero and to a work by Puccini, and also that the opening--the haunting main theme--closely resembled the flute solo (improvised by Bud Shank in the studio) from The Mamas & the Papas' 1965 song "California Dreamin"'. He asked his father's opinion; according to Lloyd Webber, his father responded "It sounds like a million dollars!" </P>

Who wrote the lyrics to memory from cats