It Had to Be You (song)

"It Had to Be You"
Sheet music cover, 1924
Song by Isham Jones Orchestra
B-side	"After the Storm"
Published	May 9, 1924 (1924-05-09) by Jerome H. Remick & Co.[1]
Released	July 1924 (1924-07)[2]
Recorded	April 24, 1924 (1924-04-24)[3]
Studio	Brunswick Studios, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City[4]
Genre	American Dance Music
Label	Brunswick 2614
Composer(s)	Isham Jones
Lyricist(s)	Gus Kahn
Isham Jones Orchestra singles chronology
"Spain" (1924) "It Had to Be You" (1924) "Some Other Day, Some Other Girl" (1924)

"It Had to Be You" is a popular song composed by Isham Jones, with lyrics by Gus Kahn.[5] It was published on May 9, 1924 (1924-05-09). by Jerome H. Remick & Co. of New York. The Isham Jones Orchestra recorded an instrumental version of it on April 24, 1924 (1924-04-24), at Brunswick Studios, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City,[4] and it was released in July.[6]

A version with lyrics by Gus Kahn and vocal by Marion Harris (who had signed with Brunswick in 1922) and Phil Ohman on piano was recorded for Brunswick in March 1924.[7][8]

Other versions

Frank Sinatra together with the Billy May Orchestra recorded a version for Frank Sinatra's 1980 Trilogy: Past Present Future.[9]

Appearances in film and television

• By Ruth Etting in the 1936 short film Melody in May
• By Edward G. Robinson and Harry Seymour with Seymour on piano in the 1938 film A Slight Case of Murder
• By Priscilla Lane in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties
• In the 1940 Merrie Melodies cartoon, Cross Country Detours, to which a lizard performs a striptease to the song to shed her skin
• By Dooley Wilson in the 1942 film Casablanca
• Daffy Duck performs a striptease to the song in the 1943 Looney Tunes cartoon The Wise Quacking Duck
• By Dick Haymes and Helen Forrest, featured in the R.K.O. Picture Show Business with Victor Young Orchestra
• By Dolores Gray in the 1944 film Mr. Skeffington
• By George Murphy in Show Business (1944)
• Betty Hutton in the 1945 film Incendiary Blonde
• Faye Emerson in the 1945 film Danger Signal
• A parody of Frank Sinatra sings the song in the 1946 Looney Tunes cartoon Book Revue
• By Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde in the 1947 film It Had to Be You
• Gene Kelly and Marie McDonald danced to it in the 1947 film Living in a Big Way (while it was being sung by a mixed group)
• In the 1951 film I'll See You in My Dreams (based loosely upon the lives of Gus Kahn and his wife Grace LeBoy Kahn)
• Joanne Dru sang a portion of it in 1955's Hell on Frisco Bay.
• Ray Charles on The Genius of Ray Charles (1959).
• Tina Louise, as Ginger Grant, sang it to Gilligan in the second season Gilligan's Island episode, "Forward March" (1966).
• Diane Keaton in the 1977 film Annie Hall
• Sung by Andrea Marcovicci (and Danny Devito) in the 1982 episode of the TV series Taxi, "Louie's Revenge"
• Peter Riegert and Amy Irving dance to the song in Crossing Delancey (1988).
• Featured in season 4 episode 7 of The Golden Girls, "Sophia's Wedding (Part 2) (1988)
• As the "theme" of When Harry Met Sally (1989), it finished as #60 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
• In the 1992 film A League of Their Own by Megan Cavanagh
• In the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child", which aired in 2005
• By Greg Davies and Helena Bonham Carter in the first episode of The Cleaner, "The Widow" (2021)
• In the 2024 film Which Brings Me To You, it was performed in the opening sequence by Danielle Nicole, Spencer Hutchings and Davey Nate, and reprised by Spencer Hutchings, Britne Oldford, Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff.

References

1. Library of Congress. Copyright Office. (1924). Catalog of Copyright Entries, 1924 Musical Compositions New Series Vol 19 Part 3. United States Copyright Office. U.S. Govt. Print. Off.
2. "Brunswick 2614 (10-in. double-faced) - Discography of American Historical Recordings". adp.library.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
3. "Isham Jones and his Orchestra – The Syncopated Times". syncopatedtimes.com. 30 October 2020. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
4. "Brunswick matrix Ch115-Ch117. It had to be you / Isham Jones Orchestra - Discography of American Historical Recordings". adp.library.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
5. ASCAP ACE Database Archived 2003-07-17 at the Wayback Machine
6. "Brunswick matrix 12760-12762. It had to be you / Marion Harris; Phil Ohman - Discography of American Historical Recordings". adp.library.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
7. "Brunswick matrix 12760-12762. It had to be you / Marion Harris; Phil Ohman". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Regents of the University of California. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
8. "Marion Harris". Redhotjazz.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-07. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
9. "Frank Sinatra - Trilogy: Past, Present & Future". Discogs. 1980.

Bibliography

• Who Wrote that Song? Dick Jacobs and Harriet Jacobs, published by Writer's Digest Books, 1993