Weekly Finale: "If I Had You"

For this week's musical finale, I offer you one of the great, albeit lesser known, of the standards: "If I Had You".

It is an amazingly simple song, which can be sung as a song of hope or despair. It can be sung with two connotations:

1. If I can have you, then I can do anything.
2. I felt like I could do anything when I had you.

I suspect the first interpretation was the one intended by songwriters Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly, and Ted Shapiro. The song's early versions tended towards the upbeat first interpretation. Here is one from Rudy Vallée in 1929:



But later versions became a little sadder, more mellow, and more like the second interpretation. Naturally, the best single cover of this style was done by the greatest vocalist who ever lived, Nat King Cole:


The list of singers who have covered this song is nearly endless, including (but not limited to) Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, Benny Goodman, Dean Martin, and Dinah Washington.

But one thing that is unusual among the covers is a duet. For that, Diana Krall and Willie Nelson nailed it:



That is all for this week. I will return Monday with more blogging. May your weekend make you feel like "there is nothin' you couldn't do"!