"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.

History

Carrie Jacobs-Bond began to write songs in 1894 to supplement the income of her husband, Frank Bond. When he died in 1895, she returned briefly to her hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, where "I Love You Truly" was written. She then moved to Chicago where she painted china and rented out rooms to make ends meet. 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". 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, one of the earliest songs composed by a woman to achieve that distinction. 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.

Lyrics and musical description

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. "I Love You Truly" has been described as having a "catchy melody... and instantly familiar sound" with a "late-nineteenth century, salon-like character"; it is categorized as a "high-class ballad", a genre of the period applied to serious ballads that were suitable for cultured venues (versus vaudeville). 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." The piece became a standard at wedding ceremonies, and a mainstay of barbershop harmony arrangers and singers.

Recordings

The song was a hit record for Elsie Baker in 1912 (Victor B-12069). 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). Film soundtracks include Jill Paquette's cover for the film, The Song (2014).

Other media

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); in the seventh-season episode of All in the Family, "The Unemployment Story: Part 1" (1976), it was sung by Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton). 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. In the seventh-season episode of Boy Meets World, "It's About Time" (1999), Amy Matthews (Betsy Randle) sang the song.