There are so many golden lights ...

The poem "I Love Married" was written by the poet Nikolai Dorizo ​​a few years before the creation of the film " It Was in Penkov " ^[3] - in his collections it dates back to 1953 ^[1] . The poet suggested that different composers write a song on these verses, but they refused, arguing that no one would publish such a song - ““ I love married ... “It's just some sedition ...” Then Dorizo ​​handed over the poem to the then editor of Literary Newspaper Konstantin Simonov , and he decided to print it. After the verses were thus “legalized”, the music for them was written immediately by several composers - Konstantin Listov , Lyudmila Lyadova , Modest Tabachnikov and Oscar Feltsman , and among the performers there were such popular singers at that time as Edith Utesova and Gelena Velikanova . Nevertheless, these versions did not have much success with the audience ^[3] .

According to Nikolai Dorizo, after that he “almost forgot about this poem” and remembered it only in 1957, at the final stage of work on the film “ It Was in Penkov, ” directed by Stanislav Rostotsky and composer Kirill Molchanov . By that time, Dorizo ​​and Molchanov had already written one song for this film - “You can’t hide from people in the village”, which in the film was performed by the artist Vyacheslav Tikhonov through the lips of the protagonist - collective farm tractor driver Matvey Morozov. Dorizo ​​recalled: “The work on the film was already completed, in a day or two it should have been accepted at the editorial board of the Gorky Film Studio . And then I suddenly remembered about my old poems. After all, the situation in them is described the same as in the film ” ^[3] .

According to Dorizo, early in the morning he rushed to Molchanov and said that “we need to write another song”, to which he replied: “What song can be when the film is already made? What did you think about before? ” Nevertheless, the poet managed to persuade the composer to familiarize himself with the poem. Dorizo ​​described this situation: “He [Molchanov] takes these verses, starts reading them, sits down at the piano and completely discourages me by putting a sheet of poetry on the music stand and immediately playing a simple and bewitching melody, the same one that you you know. " It turned out that Molchanov already had some blanks for melodies to Mikhail Svetlov ’s poems, which to some extent coincided in rhythm with the poem of Dorizo. Be that as it may, on the same day the song was ready, and the poet and composer went to the film studio, where, finding a pavilion with a piano, they introduced the director of the film Rostotsky to his creation. The studio workers who were present in the pavilion really liked the song, and they asked to leave poetry to them. A few days later, the director of the film studio called Dorizo, who said that “everywhere, on all floors and in the corridors of the studio, the girls sing“ but I love married “” and asked the composer and poet to show him the song in the author's performance. The director also liked her, and he gave permission to complete the scenes of the film, against which this song sounds ^[3] . For the film, the song “There are so many golden lights ...” was performed by Ekaterina Semenkina together with Antonina Frolova ^[3] (according to other sources, together with Lyudmila Zykina ^[4] ).

After publication in the Literary Newspaper, and then after the release of the film, the poem and song became very popular. The writer and journalist Yuri Gribov , who was working in the Romanian city ​​of Constanta at that time, recalled that in the seaside hotel, where Soviet officers lodged, female voices came from many windows in the evenings: “I love married ...” - “unmarried girls took the poem as their own the anthem, as a directive, and intensified attacks ”on officers, many of whom were there in isolation from their families. According to Gribov, his good friend, a colonel from the political department of the army, “spent all days examining love complaints and shaking his gray-haired head:“ I would have caught this Dorizo ​​in a dark alley! He gave us a job! "" ^[5] .

Subsequently, the song "There are so many golden lights ..." was considered as an unofficial anthem of Saratov ^{[6] [7]} . In 2009, a monument dedicated to this song was unveiled in the center of Saratov, depicting a bachelor with a bouquet of wildflowers, waiting for his girlfriend under a lantern and a chime ^[7] . Every quarter hour, the chimes play a song melody ^[8] . It is believed that this monument brings happiness to single girls - just hold on to the bouquet so that all the wishes come true ^[9] .

Throughout its history, beginning with the performance of Ekaterina Semenkina together with Antonina Frolova ^[3] (or Lyudmila Zykina ^[4] ) in the film “It Was in Penkovo,” the song “There are So Many Golden Lights ...” was included in the repertoire of many famous singers such as Alla Pugacheva ^[10] , Larisa Dolina , Elena Vaenga and Alyona Petrovskaya , Nadezhda Kadysheva , Ekaterina Guseva and others.

• Poems and sheet music on a-pesni.org
• A song with a story: There are so many golden lights, Moscow 24 - www.m24.ru
• The song "There are so many golden lights ..." performed by Ekaterina Semyonkina together with Lyudmila Zykina and Antonina Frolova , Alla Pugacheva , Larisa Dolina , Elena Vaenga and Alyona Petrovskaya , Nadezhda Kadysheva and Ekaterina Guseva