"Love Letters in the Sand" is a popular song first published in 1931. It began life as a poem by Nick Kenny. J. Fred Coots read the poem in the New York Daily Mirror, and obtained Kenny's permission to set the poem to music. He went through 4 different melodies before settling on the published version known today. The melody bears similarity to the 1881 song The Spanish Cavalier. Lyrics were credited to both Nick Kenny and his brother Charles Kenny. The song was first recorded on 26 August 1931, as a "vocal chorus" sung by Helen Rowland within a foxtrot played by the Majestic Dance Orchestra. George Hall popularized the song on his radio show, later making it his theme song. Ted Black and His Orchestra, with vocalist Tom Brown, had the first major hit recording of the song in 1931. Pat Boone had a major hit with the song in 1957. The melody has been used for songs in at least eight other languages.

Pat Boone version

Pat Boone's version became a major hit in June and July 1957, spending 5 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 100, with 34 weeks in total on the chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1957. In Canada, the song spent two weeks at number one. The song was used in Boone's 1957 film Bernardine. Boone did the whistling in the instrumental portion of the song as well. The song originally had a short instrumental introduction, but most versions begin with Boone's voice.

Charts

Other versions