Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of make believe English)
Wikipedia
"Making Believe" is a country music song written by Jimmy Work. Kitty Wells recorded a chart-topping version in 1955. The song is on many lists of all-time greatest country music songs and has been covered by scores of artists over the past fifty years, including Thorleifs, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Lefty Frizzell, Wanda Jackson, Connie Francis, Ray Charles, Anita Carter, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb, Social Distortion, Skeeter Davis, The Haden Triplets and Volbeat. The song is occasionally called "Makin' Believe".
Singer-songwriter Work released the song as a single in February 1955 on Dot Records, and it reached #5 on Billboard's country music jukebox charts. A month later, singer Kitty Wells released the song as a single which hit #2 on the country charts and remained there for 15 weeks, still a record for a song in the runner-up position on the country Billboard charts. The song was blocked to #1 by the 21-weeks long " In the Jailhouse Now" by Webb Pierce.
The song is a melancholy ballad about not getting over a former lover. The singer daydreams that they are still loved by the old flame even while fully knowing "you'll never be mine" again.
The song received new attention with three single releases in 1977-78, The Kendalls hitting #80 with the song, their first release on Ovation Records. A few months later, Emmylou Harris climbed to #7 with her version. The following January, Merle Haggard received considerable airplay for his version, which was the B side of his single "Running Kind". Billy Joe Royal also released a cover version of the song.
Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty released a duet version of the song in 1988 and used it as the title track for their final album together. Although the song was not a radio hit for them, it was a popular number at their concerts and the album sold fairly well via television ads.
Punk Rock group, Social Distortion, released this song on the album Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell in 1992 and a few years later, they also included the song on the DVD Live in Orange County released in 2003.
Metal band Volbeat also released this song on the album Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood in 2008.
Usage examples of "making believe".
But sometimes he is like the old juggling fellow, formerly a patient of mine in Ceylon, that making believe swallow jack-knives, once upon a time let one drop into him in good earnest, and there it stayed for a twelvemonth or more.
Sometimes he stopped at the fire-place, and sometimes at the door, making believe that he was staring with all his might into shop-windows.
Fortarrigo, however, still persisted in making believe that Angiulieri did not mean this for him, and only said:—.
Osborne Blatch says that he was striding along jauntily, making believe his umbrella was a malacca cane, when he seemed to hear a voice.
It wasn't even what the kids call Making Believe, it was just a pure and simple belief.
He rolled to a crouch with both feet under him, and for the first time looked at the circle of faces of the teeners who had beaten and made fun of him when he was pretending to be drunk and making believe to be Carl Hodges, and had stumbled into this forbidden territory.
He accused himself of making believe to his own mind that Sarah's presence, her impression, her judgment would simplify and harmonise.
He's in here making believe he's a statue, like in a Bob Hope movie.