| "I Love You Truly" | |
|---|---|
 1906 sheet music cover | |
| Song | |
| Published | 1901, 1906, by Carrie Jacobs-Bond & Son |
| Genre | Parlor song |
| Songwriter(s) | Carrie Jacobs-Bond |
"I Love You Truly" is a parlor song written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond. Since its publication in 1901 it has been sung at weddings, recorded by numerous artists over many decades, and heard on film and television.
Carrie Jacobs-Bond began to write songs in 1894 to supplement the income of her husband, Frank Bond. [1] When he died in 1895, she returned briefly to her hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, where "I Love You Truly" was written. [2] She then moved to Chicago where she painted china and rented out rooms to make ends meet. [1] There she continued to write songs and eventually sought to publish them herself. With the encouragement and assistance of friends, including a loan from contralto Jessie Bartlett Davis, in 1901 she published a sheet music collection of her compositions called Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose , one of which was "I Love You Truly". [1] She published it again as a separate song in 1906, at the same time correcting an oversight and filing for copyright. It sold over a million copies, [3] one of the earliest songs composed by a woman to achieve that distinction.[ citation needed ] [lower-alpha 1] Jacobs-Bond was invited to sing at the White House by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, and Calvin Coolidge, and sang "I Love You Truly" each time. [3]
I love you truly, truly dear,
Life with its sorrow, life with its tear
Fades into dreams when I feel you are near
For I love you truly, truly dear.
Ah! Love, 'tis something to feel your kind hand
Ah! Yes, 'tis something by your side to stand;
Gone is the sorrow, gone doubt and fear,
For you love me truly, truly dear.[ citation needed ]
"I Love You Truly" has been described as having a "catchy melody... and instantly familiar sound" with a "late-nineteenth century, salon-like character"; [5] it is categorized as a "high-class ballad", [6] a genre of the period applied to serious ballads that were suitable for cultured venues (versus vaudeville). [7] Robert Cummings describes it thus:
The song consists mainly of the melody, its second subject, and repeats. Yet the craftsmanship here is deftly wrought, the melodic goods instantly memorable, and the words sincere and beguilingly innocent. [5]
The piece became a standard at wedding ceremonies, [3] and a mainstay of barbershop harmony arrangers and singers. [8]
The song was a hit record for Elsie Baker in 1912 (Victor B-12069). [9]
It has since been recorded by numerous artists, including Sophie Braslau (1916), Dusolina Giannini (1926), Al Bowlly (1934), Bing Crosby (1934 and 1945), Erskine Hawkins (1942), Helen Traubel (1946), Jeanette MacDonald (1947), and as duets by Jo Stafford and Nelson Eddy (1951), and Pat and Shirley Boone (1962). [10] [ verification needed ] [11]
Film soundtracks include Jill Paquette's cover for the film, The Song (2014).[ citation needed ]
 | This section needs additional citations for verification .(December 2019) |
As early as 1929 the song was heard in the comedy movie Wise Girls [12] and has since been heard in numerous movies.
It has also been heard on television sitcoms, often for comic effect. In the first-season episode of I Love Lucy , "The Marriage License" (1952), it was sung by Mrs. Willoughby (Elizabeth Patterson);[ citation needed ] in the seventh-season episode of All in the Family , "The Unemployment Story: Part 1" (1976), it was sung by Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton). [14] In the second-season episode of Amen , "Wedding Bell Blues", it was sung repeatedly by the Hetebrink sisters, Amelia (Roz Ryan) and Cassieta (Barbara Montgomery), as a running gag.[ citation needed ] In the seventh-season episode of Boy Meets World , "It's About Time" (1999), Amy Matthews (Betsy Randle) sang the song.[ citation needed ]
Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of houses, usually by amateur singers and pianists. Disseminated as sheet music, its heyday came in the 19th century, as a result of a steady increase in the number of households with enough resources to purchase musical instruments and instruction in music, and with the leisure time and cultural motivation to engage in recreational music-making. Its popularity faded in the 20th century as the phonograph record and radio replaced sheet music as the most common means for the spread of popular music.
Carrie Minetta Jacobs-Bond was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter who composed some 175 pieces of popular music from the 1890s through the early 1940s.
"Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" is a popular song with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The song appeared first in the movie Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1956. From 1967 to 1973, it was also used as the theme song to Love is a Many Splendored Thing, the soap opera based on the movie.
"Aura Lea" is an American Civil War song about a maiden. It was written by W. W. Fosdick (lyrics) and George R. Poulton (music). The melody was used in Elvis Presley's 1956 hit song "Love Me Tender".
"K-K-K-Katy" is a World War I-era song written by Canadian-American composer Geoffrey O'Hara in 1917 and published in 1918. The sheet music advertised it as "The Sensational Stammering Song Success Sung by the Soldiers and Sailors", as well as "The Sensational New Stammering Song" The song was first played at a garden party fund-raiser for the Red Cross in Collins Bay on Lake Ontario. O'Hara was from Chatham, Ontario, and taught music at several universities.
"Pretty Baby" is a song written by Tony Jackson during the Ragtime era. The song was remembered as being prominent in Jackson's repertory before he left New Orleans in 1912, but was not published until 1916.
"Lily of Laguna" is a British coon song written in eye dialect. It was written in 1896 by English composer Leslie Stuart. It was a music hall favourite, performed notably by blackface performers such as Eugene Stratton and G. H. Elliott. In the early 1940s Ted Fio Rito wrote the tune of a new verse and Paul Francis Webster wrote fresh lyrics and it was stripped of its overtly racist lyrics to become a pure love song which continued to be popular into the 1950s.
"It's Only a Paper Moon" is a popular song published in 1933 with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Yip Harburg and Billy Rose.
"Moonlight Bay" is a popular song. It is commonly referred to as "On Moonlight Bay". The lyrics were written by Edward Madden, the music by Percy Wenrich, and was published in 1912. It is often sung in a barbershop quartet style. Early successful recordings in 1912 were by the American Quartet and by Dolly Connolly.
"I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)" is a popular song with music by Fred E. Ahlert and lyrics by Roy Turk that was published in 1928. Versions by Nick Lucas, Aileen Stanley and, most successfully, Ruth Etting, all charted in America in 1929.
"Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland" was one of the most famous and beloved popular songs of the early 20th century. This gentle waltz, with lyrics by Beth Slater Whitson and music by Leo Friedman, was published in Chicago in 1909.
"My Melancholy Baby" is a popular song published in 1912 and first sung publicly by William Frawley. The music was written by Ernie Burnett (1884–1959), the lyrics by George A. Norton.
"Let Me Call You Sweetheart" is a popular song, with music by Leo Friedman and lyrics by Beth Slater Whitson. The song was published in 1910 and was a huge hit for the Peerless Quartet in 1911. A recording by Arthur Clough was very popular the same year too. A 1924 recording identifies a Spanish title, "Déjame llamarte mía".
"Reaching for the Moon" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin for the 1930 musical film of the same name.
"When I Lost You" is a song with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. It was written in 1912 after his wife of five months, the former Dorothy Goetz, died of typhoid fever. In it he poured out the grief of his loss; it was the only song that he ever admitted had such a connection to his own life. The song, a ballad, was unlike any of Berlin's previous songs, which were upbeat tunes written to take advantage of the dance craze. The song is in a slow waltz tempo. It became Berlin's first hit ballad.
"Down by the Old Mill Stream" is a song written by Tell Taylor. It was one of the most popular songs of the early 20th century. The publisher, Forster Music Publisher, Inc., sold 4 million copies.
"In the Good Old Summer Time" is an American Tin Pan Alley song first published in 1902 with music by George Evans and lyrics by Ren Shields. The song is in the public domain.
"A Perfect Day" is a parlor song written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862–1946) in 1909 at the Mission Inn, Riverside, California. Jacobs-Bond wrote the lyrics after watching the sun set over Mount Rubidoux from her 4th-floor room. She came up with the tune three months later while touring the Mojave Desert. For many years the Mission Inn played "A Perfect Day" on its carillon at the end of each day.
"Just Awearyin' for You" is a parlor song, one of that genre's all-time hits.
"When the Red, Red Robin " is a popular song written, both words and music, by Harry Woods in 1926. The song became the signature song for singer and actress Lillian Roth, who performed it often during the height of her musical career from the late 1920s to the late 1930s.
