"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 three presidents, and each time sang "I Love You Truly".
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. 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.
It was heard in the film I Married a Witch, when it was played by the wedding band and sung by Helen St. Rayner several times.
In the film Hells Angels on Wheels, the members of the motorcycle gang sing a tuneless, mocking version of the song at the wedding of Abigail and Gypsy.
In the romantic drama The Song, the characters Jed and Rose are seen watching this same scene from It’s A Wonderful Life on television, and the song is sung at their wedding by Jill Paquette DeZwaan.
It has also been heard on television sitcoms, often for comic effect. In the first-season episode of I Love Lucy, "The Marriage License", it was sung by Mrs. Willoughby ; in the seventh-season episode of All in the Family, "The Unemployment Story: Part 1", it was sung by Edith Bunker. In the second-season episode of Amen, "Wedding Bell Blues", it was sung repeatedly by the Hetebrink sisters, Amelia and Cassieta, as a running gag. In the seventh-season episode of Boy Meets World, "It's About Time", Amy Matthews sang the song.
