You'll Never Know

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"You'll Never Know" is a popular song. The music was written by Harry Warren and the lyrics by Mack Gordon, based on a poem written by a young Oklahoma war bride named Dorothy Fern Norris. The lyrics can be found at [1].

The song was featured in the 1943 movie Hello, Frisco, Hello where it is sung by Alice Faye. It was also performed by Faye in the 1944 film Four Jills in a Jeep. It was recorded in 1943 by, among others, Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes. Haymes’ version was a #1 hit on the R&B charts that year.

Sinatra recorded his version at his first recording session at Columbia as a solo artist. (He had recorded at Columbia in 1939 as a member of Harry James’s band.) It was arranged and conducted by Alex Wilder with the Bobby Tucker Singers providing accompaniment. Sinatra’s version charted for 16 weeks starting July 24 and spent two weeks at number 2. ^[1]

In Britain, the recording by Vera Lynn was very popular due to the ongoing Second World War.

A 1952 recording by Rosemary Clooney is also well known, as well as a version recorded in 1954 by Big Maybelle.

The Sinatra and Haymes records were made during the 1942–1944 strike against the recording companies a strike by the American Federation of Musicians. As a result, the recordings were made without musicians, with vocal groups replacing the usual instrumental backup. The group backing Haymes, The Song Spinners, was actually given credit on the records.

The song was the first song that Barbra Streisand ever recorded in 1955. It was the opening song on her 4-CD box-set Just for the Record (1991). The box-set closed with another version of the song, sung as a duet by Streisand in 1991 and herself as a girl of 13.

The song won the 1943 Academy Award for Best Original Song, one of nine nominated songs that year.

In 1961, a version by Shirley Bassey made #6 in the UK charts.

[edit] Notes

Awards
Preceded by "White Christmas" from Holiday Inn	Academy Award for Best Original Song 1943	Succeeded by "Swinging on a Star" from Going My Way