Once in a While was one of the four original songs Madeleine Peyroux released on her third solo album "Half the Perfect World

Half the Perfect World

Half the Perfect World is the fourth studio album by American jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux. It was released on September 12, 2006. It peaked at #33 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and had sold 218,000 copies in the United States by December 2008....

. It was the third and last single from that album.

The tune, considered one of the highlights of the album, was written by Joe Harris, producer Larry Klein

Larry Klein

Larry Klein is a music producer, songwriter and bass guitar player, commonly known for being the frequent musical collaborator, and ex-husband, of Joni Mitchell....

 and Peyroux herself. Mark Orton made the arrangements on the album version.

In the song, Peyroux tells to her ex-lover that she still thinks in him "once in a while" and that she "still smiles when she thinks on their kisses" but she is "tired of dying" and so she'll "live instead". The song did not chart and there was no videoclip filmed. Along with this song, on the EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 was also released a cover of Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

's and Anjani Thomas' "Blue Alert".