"Only a Moment Ago" is a song with music by Milton Ager and lyrics by Billy Rose, composed circa 1950. It represents one of Ager's final creative efforts, arriving well after the peak of his career in the 1920s and 1930s, when he produced enduring hits such as "Ain't She Sweet" (1927) and "Happy Days Are Here Again" (1929). Born in Chicago in 1893, Ager built his reputation through song plugging, Broadway work, and eventually Hollywood songwriting before largely retiring from active composition by the 1940s. This late-period piece, known primarily through a printed score preserved in the Library of Congress's Milton Ager Music Manuscripts collection, appears to have circulated very little during its era and was never widely recorded or performed. It does not appear among lists of jazz standards or frequently covered popular songs from the mid-century period, making it a genuine rarity in Ager's catalog. The song's obscurity means that most listeners will encounter it as a deep discovery rather than a familiar standard, and its rediscovery by contemporary artists represents a meaningful act of repertoire excavation. For students of the Great American Songbook, it offers a window into the quieter final chapter of a composer whose earlier work helped define an era of American popular music.
