I HAD MYSELF A TRUE LOVE
(Harold Arlen (m) / Johnny Mercer (l) 1945)

Barbra Streisand 1964

Also sung by:
Dinah Shore
Heather Macrae
Barbara Cook
Audra McDonald
Helen Goldsby
Dorothy Loudon
Audrey Lavine
Felicia Sanders
Karen Hall
And many others...


>From the production-troubled Broadway musical 
‘St Louis Woman’ March 1946.
This musical was based on the African-American poet 
Arna Bontemps’ novel “God Sends Sunday’ written in 1931.
Some consider this soundtrack the best of the Arlen/Mercer duo.


I had myself a true love
A true love who was somethin’ to see
I had myself a true love
At least that's what I kept on tellin’ me.

The first thing in the mornin’
I still try to think up a way to be with him
Some part of the evening
And that's the way I live, through the day.

I had myself a true love
But now he's gone and left me for good
The Lord knows I done heard those back yard
Whispers going 'round the neighborhood.

There may be a lot of things I miss
A lot of things I don't know
But I do know this, now I ain't got no love
And once upon a time, I had a true love.

In the evenin’, in the doorway
While I stand there and wait for his comin’
With the house swept and the clothes hung
And the pot on the stove there a hummin’.

Where is he, while I watch the risin’ moon
Where is he, why'd he gone so soon
Now that ain't that way that it used to be, what now
And everybody keeps tellin’ me.

There may be a lot of things I miss
A lot of things I don't know
But I do know this…now…I ain't got no love
And once upon a time, I had a true love.



(Transcribed by David Story - August 2013)