You Were Meant for Me

By Nacio Herb Brown & Arthur Freed

1929

In honor of the passing yesterday of early Hollywood starlet Anita Page, I give you this very pretty song, from her movie The Broadway Melody. Brown wrote the song for Page, to whom he was attached at the time. They would marry, but Page later annulled the marriage after discovering that Brown was still married to his first wife (so much for being meant for each other!). The song was a big hit, coming out of MGM's very first musical. It would be brought back 23 years later in Singin' in the Rain.

Lyrics:

Life was a song,

You came along,

I've laid awake the whole night through.

If I ever dared to think you'd care,

This is what I'd say to you:

You were meant for me,

And I was meant for you.

Nature patterned you,

And when she was done,

You were all the sweet things

Rolled up in one.

You're like a plaintive melody

That never lets me free.

But I'm content

The angels must have sent you,

And they meant you just for me.

Recorded By:

Harold "Scrappy" Lambert

Perry Como

Helen Forrest

Coleman Hawkins

Paul Weston

* For more on Anita Page, check out my other blog, The Vault of Horror.