More Than You Know (Youmans, Rose and Eliscu Song)
More Than You Know is a pop song written by Vincent Youmans (music), Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu (lyrics) and released in 1929. The song later became a popular jazz standard . Alec Wilder called More Than You Know Youmans' best ballad and counts it among the best pop songs.
background
The songwriting team Youmans, Rose and Eliscu wrote More Than You Know for the musical Great Day , for which they also contributed the title track , Happy Because I'm in Love and Without a Song . More Than You Know was featured by Mayo Methot in the musical that premiered on October 17, 1929 at New York's Cosmopolitan Theater. In later years the song became associated with Jane Froman , who interpreted it during her appearances. The first verses of the song about an obsessive love are:
- More than you know, more than you know.
- Girl o 'my heart, I love you so.
- Lately I find you're on my mind.
- More than you know.
First recordings and later cover versions
Ruth Etting was successful with the song in the United States ; Mildred Bailey and Perry Como helped him make a comeback in 1937 and 1946, respectively. The musicians who covered the song from late 1929 included Libby Holman ( Brunswick ), Zaidee Jackson (Odeon) and Helen Morgan (Victor 22149).
The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 436 (as of 2016) cover versions in the field of jazz . Notable among the musicians who covered More Than You Know are Blossom Dearie , Dexter Gordon , Coleman Hawkins , George Shearing , Sarah Vaughan , Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum . The song was also used in the soundtrack of the film The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), in which Michelle Pfeiffer interpreted it.