Description
Love Me or Leave Me is a popular song written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. The song was introduced in the Broadway musical comedy Whoopee! which opened on Broadway in December 1928. Whoopee! also included another major hit for Donaldson and Kahn – Makin’ Whoopee! (also arranged for wind quintet/quartet).
Love Me or Leave Me is a ‘torchy’ – that is a sentimental love song in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love. In the song Donaldson’s repetitive principal melody line jumps octaves incessantly whilst Kahn’s brilliant lyrics place the spurned lover as a defiant victim, oscillating between plea and ultimatum: “Love me or leave me and let me be lonely. You won’t believe me and I love you only.” And lines such as, “I’d rather be lonely than happy with somebody else” and “I intend to be independently blue”.
The original version of the song, the biggest-selling at the time, was recorded by Ruth Etting in 1928. It became her signature song and was subsequently included in the 1955 biographical movie (also entitled Love Me or Leave Me) about her life, in which Doris Day played Etting. Doris Day’s version of the song was also a huge hit. There have been countless renditions of the jazz standard recorded by the likes of Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Bing Crosby, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman and Fats Waller … to name but a few.
Ideal wedding music (ignoring the ‘leave me’ bit, of course!).
