Always: A Song History

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Irving Berlin wrote "Always" in 1925, the year he met Ellin Mackay, a debutante and writer whose father objected to the match; the two married on January 4, 1926, in a secret ceremony.[1][2] The Irving Berlin organization describes the song as Berlin's wedding present to her, and Berlin's own note on the earliest known manuscript places its writing in Atlantic City in July 1925, although the title had already been registered with the Music Publishers Protection Association that May.[1] A frequently repeated claim holds that it was written for the Marx Brothers musical The Cocoanuts; the Berlin organization calls this incorrect, citing a 1959 letter to Groucho Marx in which Berlin said he wrote the song during that period but not for the show, and remembered that George Kaufman showed little enthusiasm when Berlin sang it for him.[1] Only the last four lines of Berlin's first, placeholder lyric survived into the finished song.[1]

Etching of couples dancing a waltz in a dimly lit hall

Anders Zorn, The Waltz, etching, 1891. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown because "Always" is a waltz; it has no connection to the song.

Irving Berlin, Inc. published the waltz in 1925.[3] A 1943 newspaper account credits Belle Baker with introducing it at Brooklyn's Bushwick Theatre, though the date of that performance is not known.[1] Several recordings followed in February 1926: George Olsen and his Music cut it for Victor in New York with vocalists, the tenor Henry Burr recorded it for Victor in Camden, New Jersey, with a small orchestra, and Vincent Lopez's Casa Lopez Orchestra made an instrumental version for OKeh that was also issued in Britain and, as "Siempre," for the Mexican market.[4][5][6]

Samuel Goldwyn's Lou Gehrig film The Pride of the Yankees, which opened in New York in July 1942, credits the song, and a printing of the sheet music in Notre Dame's collections carries cover text promoting the film.[7][8] In Universal's Christmas Holiday (1944), it serves as the theme song of the club singer played by Deanna Durbin.[9][10] In 1980, Patsy Cline's original producer, Owen Bradley, stripped ten of her master recordings down to the lead vocal and had session players, backing singers and a string section record fresh accompaniments; the resulting album, Always, includes her version of the song.[11] The song entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2021.[12]

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Sources

  1. Irving Berlin Music Company: "Always".
  2. Smithsonian Magazine: "Songwriter Irving Berlin's Interfaith Marriage Caused 1920s Gossip".
  3. Western Michigan University Libraries: ""Always", 1925".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-34601. Always / George Olsen and his Music".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-34552. Always / Henry Burr".
  6. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh matrix 74008. Always (Waltz) / Casa Lopez Orchestra ; Vincent Lopez".
  7. AFI Catalog: "The Pride of the Yankees".
  8. University of Notre Dame Rare Books & Special Collections: "Irving Berlin (composer). "Always." New York: Irving Berlin, 1925".
  9. AFI Catalog: "Christmas Holiday".
  10. Toronto Film Society: "Christmas Holiday (1944)".
  11. AllMusic: "Always – Patsy Cline".
  12. NPR: "Party Like It's 1925 On Public Domain Day (Gatsby And Dalloway Are In)".