I'll Be Seeing You, song

• Date: 1938
• Composer: Sammy Fain
• Period: Modern (1910-1949)

Review

In 1938 composer Sammy Fain collaborated with longtime lyricist Irving Kahal on the musical Right This Way. It was not particularly successful, but the show's one hit number, "I'll Be Seeing You," would go on to become the most popular song the Fain/Kahal team ever produced. It inspired the 1944 film of the same title that starred Ginger Rogers and Joseph Cotton. Bing Crosby recorded the song that same year and that effort became the nation's bestselling record for four weeks and remained on the charts another 20 more. The melody to the song was one of the most famous in the 1940s and is still recognizable by a wide audience today, including some young listeners. It is sentimental but not saccharine and yearns with passion, as the text recounts a woman's (or man's) longings for her absent lover. The melody descends at the outset in its sweet melancholy, but in its passionate, hopeful yearnings, reaches upward in the next several phrases, failing so touchingly, however, to attain the emotional ecstasy it desperately desires. In most performances of "I'll Be Seeing You," the opening verse, beginning with Cathedral bells, is excised, so that the song opens with this striking Fain melody. ~ Robert Cummings, All Music Guide

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Best of Act One	2003
Best of Mario Lanza [2000]	2000
Broadway My Way	2003
Charmaine [Music Digital]	2002
Everything Possible	1995
Got Swing!	2003
Got Swing! [Hybrid SACD]	2003
I'll Be Seeing You
I'll Be Seeing You: Love Songs of World War II
Kiss the Boys Goodbye: Classic Songs from World War II, Vol.1
Legends	2004
Liberace and the Lond	2002
Mantovani: Triple Treasures	2002
Mario Lanza: My Romance	2001
Music for Entertaining	1998
Music for Lonely Lovers	1990
My Secret Heart	1999
Original Album Classics
Original Album Classics	2009
Price for Peace	2002
Someone Talked!: Memories of WWII	2009
The Greatest Song Ever Written, Vol.1
The Legendary Liberace: Always	2000
The Magnificent Mario Lanza: Be My Love	2005
The Notebook	2004
The Notebook	2004
The World of Mantovani [Decca]	2009
We'll Meet Again: The Love Songs of World War II