Songfacts®:

• Along with the title song for the album, Allen wrote this with Dean Pitchford, whose hits as a songwriter include "Fame" and "Make Me Lose Control." "Once Before I Go" was written for Allen's longtime friend Ann Margaret whose husband was sick. It had a deeper meaning when Allen's partner Gregory Connell passed away of AIDS a year later, and Allen was not afraid to tell Dean Pitchford what happened.
  
  Peter Allen was a mentor to Pitchford, who was also a stage actor/songwriter. Dean says that he learned how to write songs around characters from Allen, which came in handy for Pitchford's movie Footloose.
• Hugh Jackman sang this in the bio-musical about Allen's life The Boy From Oz. It appears at the end of the show when he himself is dying and ends up in "Rio." >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Sara - Silver Spring, MD, for above 2