It had to be you

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Isham Jones

It Had to Be You is a song written by Isham Jones (music) and Gus Kahn (lyrics) and published in 1924.

background

Isham Jones got a small grand piano from his wife for his 30th birthday; He is said to have composed four songs within an hour, including “I'll See You in My Dreams”, “ The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else ” and “It Had to Be You”. Kahn's text reflects the singer's search for an ideal of a partner and the realization that no one is perfect, “the acceptance of her bad mood and righteousness in a way that sometimes makes him sad. His love makes him faithful. If he ultimately chose it, it is not because it is perfect, but because it excites him. With all your mistakes , he tells her in a dubious compliment, I still love you . "

"The mixture of kindness and insecurity - the kindness in the music and the insecurity in the lyrics - gave the song a more adult point of view than you would otherwise find in the 1920s," wrote Philip Furia and Michael Lasser in America's Songs . "Typically for the time, it has dense rhymes that match the short melodic phrases, but it develops with a satisfactory, if cryptic, logic".

First recordings

Musicians who first recorded the song in the United States from 1924 included Sam Lanin and his Orchestra, The Ambassadors, Marion Harris , Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, Cliff Edwards , The California Ramblers , Isham Jones and his Orchestra, Aileen Stanley and Billy Murray with Prince's Orchestra , Chappie d'Amato with Jack Hylton and his Orchestra

Later cover versions and use in films

The version by Red Nichols (1930) hit the US charts (# 19). In later years Artie Shaw (1941 and 1944) and Earl Hines (1944) also succeeded. US stars like Dinah Shore , Dick Haymes , Doris Day and Dean Martin also interpreted the song. The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 506 (as of 2015) cover versions in the field of jazz .

It Had to Be You was featured by Ruth Etting in the short film Melody in May in 1936 , by Priscilla Lane in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties , by Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde in the 1947 film It Had to Be You , and in the 1944 film Mr Skeffington , and by Danny Thomas in 1951 in the film I'll See You in My Dreams . Dooley Wilson sang it in Casablanca , George Murphy in Show Business (1944), Betty Hutton in 1945 in Incendiary Blonde and Diane Keaton in 1977 in Annie Hall . The song is also used at the end of Harry and Sally (1989).

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ A b c Philip Furia, Michael Lasser: America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood . 2006
  2. ↑ Okeh 40084, recorded March 20, 1924.
  3. ↑ Vocalion 14792 (matrix 12951), recorded March 24, 1924.
  4. ↑ Brunswick 2610 (matrix-12760-62), taken March 28, 1924.
  5. ↑ Victor 19339 (matrix-29779) taken April 8, 1924
  6. ↑ Pathé Actuelle 032047 (matrix 105278), recorded April 15, 1924
  7. ↑ Columbia 127-D (matrix 81700-2), recorded April 18, 1924
  8. ^ Brunswick 2614, recorded April 24, 1924
  9. ↑ Victor 19373 (matrix 30247-3), recorded June 5, 1924
  10. ↑ HMV B-1887 (matrix Bb 4978-2), added August 19
  11. ↑ a b Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)
  12. ^ Gerhard Klußmeier : Jazz in the Charts. Another view on jazz history. Liner notes and booklet for the 100 CD edition. Membrane International GmbH. ISBN 978-3-86735-062-4
  13. ↑ imdb.com: Harry and Sally (1989) - Soundtracks