jmjiloveyou - You Belong To Me

jmjiloveyou
Jul 04, 2025 09:45am
<p>Chilton Price, Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart</p><p><br></p><p>"You Belong to Me" is a romantic popular music ballad from the 1950s.</p><p><br></p><p>"You Belong to Me" is credited to Pee Wee King, Chilton Price and Redd Stewart.</p><p><br></p><p>Price, a songwriting librarian at WAVE Radio Louisville, had written the song in its virtual entirety as "Hurry Home to Me", envisioning the song as an American woman's plea to a sweetheart serving overseas in World War II. Afforded songwriting credit on the song mostly in exchange for their work in promoting it, King and Stewart did slightly adjust Price's composition musically and lyrically, shifting the focus from a wartime background "into a kind of universal song about separated lovers" and changing the title to "You Belong to Me". Price had previously had success with another hit which she had written, "Slow Poke", under a similar arrangement with the two men.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>The first recording of the song, in February 1952, was by Joni James. She had seen the sheet music in the Woods Building in Chicago and the lyrics attracted her. She recorded the song in Chicago, and it was released in March on the local Sharp Records label. After she signed to MGM it was reissued as her second single on that label on August 5, 1952, after Jo Stafford, Patti Page and Dean Martin had covered it. James' version also was issued on M-G-M Records for national distribution. The best-known early 1952 version of the song was recorded after James' recording by Sue Thompson on Mercury's country label as catalog number 6407. It was soon covered by Patti Page, whose version was issued by Mercury as catalog number 5899, with "I Went to Your Wedding" (a bigger Patti Page hit, reaching No. 1) on the flip side. It entered the Billboard chart on August 22, 1952, and lasted 12 weeks on the chart, peaking at No. 4.</p><p><br></p><p>A cover version by Jo Stafford became the most popular version. Issued by Columbia Records as catalog number 39811, it was Stafford's biggest hit, topping the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom (the first song by a female singer to top the UK Singles Chart). It first entered the US chart on August 1, 1952 and remained there for 24 weeks.[4] In the UK, it appeared in the first ever UK chart of 14 November 1952 (then a top 12) and reached number 1 on 16 January 1953, being only the second record to top such chart, remaining in the chart for a total of 19 weeks. Another cover version, by Dean Martin, released by Capitol Records as catalog number 2165, was also in play at that time. This version first entered the chart on August 29, 1952, and remained on the chart for 10 weeks, reaching No. 12. All the versions were combined in the rankings on the Cash Box charts, and the song reached No. 1 on those charts as well, lasting on the chart for more than half a year.</p><p><br></p><p>The song figures prominently in the 1953 movie "Forbidden" starring Tony Curtis, Joanne Dru and Lyle Bettger. The melody is used for the opening credits. In a scene reminiscent of "Casablanca", Eddie (Tony Curtis) asks Allan (Victor Sen Yung), the Lisbon Club pianist, why he plays a somber tune every time Eddie appears at the club. He answers that Christine never comes when he is there. But in that moment, seeing that Christine (Joanne Dru) has just entered he plays the melody. It is followed by the club singer (Mamie Van Doren) singing the first verse (dubbed by Virginia Rees).</p><p><br></p><p>In 1958, the song crossed over into rock for the first time on the Capitol album Gene Vincent Rocks and the Blue Caps Roll. A later version of the song, by the Duprees, also made the Billboard Top 10, reaching No. 7 in 1962. It was recorded by many other pop vocalists, including Patsy Cline and Bing Crosby. A solo acoustic version was recorded by Bob Dylan for the 1992 album Good as I Been to You but was eventually left off as an out-take; the recording surfaced two years later in the soundtrack for the 1994 film Natural Born Killers.</p>