I Love You Truly

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“I Love You Truly”
Cover
Parlor
Released	1901, 1906
Writer	Carrie Jacobs Bond

I Love You Truly, written by Carrie Jacobs Bond, is a parlor song. The song has been used at weddings since its release. It was the first song written by a woman to sell one million copies of sheet music.^[1]

1 History
2 Artists
3 Lyrics
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

After a financially troubled youth, Bond was inspired to start writing songs by her second husband Dr. Frank Bond. After he died from falling on ice in 1895, she moved from the economically depressed Upper Peninsula of Michigan back to her hometown Janesville, Wisconsin. She wrote the song after returning to Janesville. She made a meager living painting ceramics and writing songs. While painting she would hum improvised tunes and add verses. These improvised tunes became the basis for her collection of sheet music called Seven Songs: as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose.^[2]

A young female singer lived across the hall from Jacobs-Bond had to leave unexpectedly, so she asked Jacobs-Bond to entertain her manager and another man. When the two men arrived, Jacobs-Bond asked the men to come into her apartment. The manager, named Victor P. Sincere, saw some of her manuscripts lying around and asked if she had written them. After Jacobs-Bond said yes, Sincere asked her to perform a song, so she immediately started playing "I Love You Truly". He asked if she would like to have the song performed in public, and she answered "no" because she had not copyrighted the song. Someone would be able to steal the song. Jacobs-Bond had second thoughts, so she went to the telephone at the corner drugstore and called Jessie Bartlett Davis, even though they had never met. Jacobs Bond hoping that Bartlett Davis would make the song popular like she had for "Oh, Promise Me" in 1898. Bartlett Davis volunteered to pay for the cost to publish Seven Songs: as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose.^[2]

[edit] Artists

The song hit #1 in the United States in 1912 when it was recorded by Elsie Baker.^[3] Numerous artists have recorded the song, including Al Bowlly, Bing Crosby, Connie Francis, Erskine Hawkins, The Ink Spots, Liberace, Guy Lombardo, The Platters, and Lawrence Welk.^[4] It remains a mainstay of barbershop harmony arrangers and singers.^[5]

[edit] Lyrics

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.