LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME
From the Broadway Musical "Whoopee!" (1928)
(Gus Kahn / Walter Donaldson)

Ruth Etting (Broadway Production) - 1928
Chick Endor (with Leonard Joy & His Orch.) - 1928
Benny Goodman & His Orch. - 1934 (Re-recorded 1936)
Billie Holiday - 1942
Billy Eckstine - 1945
Bing Crosby - 1947
Perry Como (with Russ Case Orch. & The Satisfiers) - 1947
Doris Day (feat. in the film "Love Me Or Leave Me") - 1955
Sammy Davis Jr. - 1955
Ted Heath & His Orch. (vocal: Stan Tracey) - 1955
Kay Starr - 1956
Brook Benton - 1959
Ella Fitzgerald (with Nelson Riddle & His Orch.) - 1962
Carole Swarbrick & Charles Repole (Broadway Revival) - 1979
Bryan Ferry - 1999

Also recorded by:
Ella Mae Morse; Lena Horne; Frank Sinatra; Count Basie;
Nina Simone; Louis Armstrong; Elkie Brooks; Pearl Carr;
Nana Mouskouri; Dinah Shore; Dick Haymes; Billy Daniels;
Les Brown; Jewel; Bobby Bland ... and many, many others.



This suspense is killing me
I can't stand uncertainty
Tell me now, I got to know
Whether you want me to stay or go

Love me or leave me and let me be lonely
You won't believe me and I love you only
I'd rather be lonely than happy with somebody else

You might find the nighttime the right time for kissing
But nighttime is my time for just reminiscing
Regretting instead of forgetting with somebody else

There'll be no one unless that someone is you
I intend to be independently blue

I want your love, but I don't want to borrow
To have it today, to give back tomorrow
For my love is your love, there's no love for nobody else

Oh, love me or leave me, let me be lonely
You won't believe me and I love you only
I'd rather be lonely than happy with somebody else

You might find the nighttime the right time for kissing
But nighttime is my time for just reminiscing
Regretting instead of forgetting with somebody else

There'll be no one unless that someone is you
I intend to be independently blue, oh, so blue

I want your love, but I don't want to borrow
To have it today, to give back tomorrow
For I couldn't bear it, to share it with somebody else