<P> "Long Ago (and Far Away)" is a popular song from the 1944 Technicolor film musical Cover Girl starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly and released by Columbia Pictures . The music was written by Jerome Kern, and the lyrics were written by Ira Gershwin . The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1944 but lost out to "Swinging on a Star". The song was published in 1944 and sold over 600,000 copies in sheet music in a year . In 2004 it finished #92 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema . </P> <P> In the film it is sung by Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Martha Mears) to Gene Kelly, and later briefly reprised by Jinx Falkenburg . Charting versions were recorded almost simultaneously by Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest, Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford, and Perry Como . </P>

Who wrote the song long ago and far away