IF EVER I WOULD LEAVE YOU
From the show "Camelot" (1960)
(Alan Jay Lerner / Frederick Loewe)

Robert Goulet - 1960
Carol Ventura - 1964
David Whitfield - 1966
Gene Merlino - 1967
Aretha Franklin - 1970
Robert Meadmore - 1982
Jackie Cain & Roy Kral - 1989
Thomas Hampson - 1996
Jacky Terrasson & Cassandra Wilson - 1997
Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers - 1997
Bryn Terfel - 1998

Also recorded by: 
Harry Secombe; John Raitt; Kate Smith; Roger Whittaker; 
John Gary; Sonny Rollins; Kenny Dorham; Ron Raines; Tom Jones.


If ever I would leave you
It wouldn't be in summer.
Seeing you in summer
I never would go.
Your hair streaked with sunlight,
Your lips red as flame,
Your face with a lustre
That puts gold to shame!

But if I'd ever leave you,
It couldn't be in autumn.
How I'd leave in autumn
I never will know.
I've seen how you sparkle
When fall nips the air.
I know you in autumn
And I must be there.

And could I leave you
Running merrily through the snow?
Or on a wintry evening
When you catch the fire's glow?

If ever I would leave you,
How could it be in springtime?
Knowing how in spring I'm bewitched by you so?
Oh, no! not in springtime!
Summer, winter or fall!
No, never could I leave you at all!