When I Lost You

By Irving Berlin
1912

A truly heartbreaking song, and one of the most personal of standards. Berlin wrote it following the typhoid fever death of his wife of five months, a singer named Dorothy Goetz. Berlin himself made the first recording of it, and it soon became his first hit ballad. A simple waltz with bittersweet harmony and diminished seventh chords, it was the only song born so directly of the composer's personal pain.

Lyrics:

I lost the sunshine and roses,
I lost the heavens of blue.
I lost the beautiful rainbow,
I lost the morning dew.

I lost the angel who gave me
Summer the whole winter through.
I lost the gladness that turned into sadness,
When I lost you.

Recorded By:

Frank Sinatra
Bing Crosby
Tony Bennett
Jessica Molaskey
Maude Maggart