New Yorkers Tommy Albright and Jeff Douglas take a vacation in the Scottish Highlands and get lost in a mystical village called Brigadoon that only appears once every hundred years. Despite the 18th century environment and personalities of the villagers, the young men both find romantic partners, Tommy?s much more serious with a girl named Fiona. As the day slowly comes to a close, the men realize that not only will the town disappear again for the next one hundred years, but also that if anyone succeeds in leaving, it will be lost forever. Tommy must choose between his fiancé back in New York and his new love in the mysterious Brigadoon.
This song is sung by Tommy as he professes his love for Fiona, and his fears at having to leave after just one day to return to his lonely, yet committed, life.
This is hard to say, but as I wandered through the lea,
I felt for just a fleeting moment that
I suddenly was free of being lonely.
Then I closed my eyes and saw the very reason why.
I saw a man with his head bowed low.
His heart had no place to go.
I looked and I thought to myself with a sigh:
There but for you go I.
I saw a man walking by the sea,
Alone with the tide was he.
I looked and I thought as I watched him go by:
There but for you go I.
Lonely men around me, trying not to cry,
Till the day you found me, there among them was I.
I saw a man who had never known a love that was all his own.
I thought as I thanked all the stars in the sky:
There, but for you, go I.