Love Letters - Victor Young

[DaleMac]

Love Letters (Straight From Your Heart) by Victor Young & Edward Heyman (1945). This is the 1961 Ketty Lester arrangement. Settings are: Pop > Rock 12/8; Tempo > 42

I guess this is Oldies/Doo-Wop/R&B and belongs here in the Pop forum, even though she toured with Cab Calloway. Rosemary Clooney sang it as a ballad in the 50s, and pianist Josh Nelson released a very hip instrumental jazz version in 2007.

Love Letters (Bb Pop)

 

[shin1ro]

A sweet sweet song of Diana Krall version in her 'The Look Of Love' album. The chords are slightly different in its Coda part but both main and Coda parts are great.
Please note that this song played by instruments is normally in key G. This vocal version actually starts with a verse in key G but the song part is sung in key Bb. After the song part, it's ending is again played in key G by strings. Unfortunately, the verse and the ending have to be omitted because the length becomes too long.

Love Letters (Diana Krall) - Young - Heyman

 

[Jazzmeister]

Love Letters

Love Letters pop/jazz crossover tune. Great Stanley Turrentine version on his Hustlin' album.


Love Letters - Young-Heyman

 

[DaleMac]

Again, watch your placement of double bars (measures 8, 17 & 32) and bold double bar (should be at the end, instead of bar 16). Last year I posted a chart of Ketty Lester's classic version, if you'd like to use it as reference:

https://forums.irealpro.com/threads...ung-Edward-Heyman)-Ketty-Lester-version.3983/

And if you haven't heard it already, check out Josh Nelson's.

 

[Jazzmeister]

Sorry, not intentional on the double bar placement. I just used the 16 bar A/B template, and must have overlooked the double bar that was already there. I will strive for perfection in my future endeavors. I searched for a version of this before I made mine. I didn't see yours come up, but thanks for the link.

 

[DaleMac]

Perfection is worth striving for, although I have yet to attain it myself. (And the Forum's Search function is certainly far from perfect...) Hope I don't seem over-critical. Keep posting these good tunes!

Since I use iRealb on a lot of my solo piano gigs, I care mostly about what happens after I push the "Play" button. Stuff like double bars, repeats, default key signatures, etc., all affect what the Player does. For instance, I occasionally plug in a double-bar if I want a cymbal crash in a particular place. Or I'll enter a chord voicing that isn't "quite right" because I like what the bass does. And I almost always have to rig an odd-meter measure at the end, to make songs stop where I want them to. So most of my charts are gonna be less than ideal for reading.

 

[pdxdjazz]

Love Letters - Victor Young

)BOB

The song has been performed many times, but the best-known versions were made by:
Dick Haymes (in 1945, US #11)
Ketty Lester (in 1962, US #5, US R&B #2,[1] UK #4)
Elvis Presley (in 1966, US #19, UK #6)
Alison Moyet (in 1987, UK #4)

The song has also been recorded by:
Nat King Cole, on his 1957 album Love Is the Thing
Maureen O'Hara, on her 1958 album Love Letters from Maureen O'Hara
Jack Jones, for his 1961 album Lollipops and Roses
Shelley Fabares, on her 1962 album Shelley!
Stanley Turrentine, on his 1964 album Hustlin'
Andy Williams, on his 1964 album, The Academy Award-Winning "Call Me Irresponsible" and Other Hit Songs from the Movies.
Cilla Black, for her 1965 album Cilla
Sandie Shaw, for her 1965 album Sandie
Earl Grant, for his 1965 album Spotlight On Earl Grant
Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs released as a single November 1965
The Lettermen, for their 1966 album A New Song for Young Love
Don Patterson, from his 1967 album Soul Happening!
Sergio Franchi on his 1968 RCA Victor album I'm A Fool to Want You
Engelbert Humperdinck, on his 1969 Parrot Records LP (PAS 71030) album Engelbert Humperdinck
Fox, for their debut 1975 album Fox
Frankie Miller, for his 1977 album Full House
Teresa Carpio & George Lam, for their 1978 album Teresa Carpio & Lam
Modern Romance, for their 1983 album Party Tonight
Joe Walsh, for his 1983 album You Bought It – You Name It
Miki Matsubara for her 1984 album Blue Eyes
Steve Jones, Ex-Sex Pistol; for his 1987 Solo Album Mercy
Jenni Forbes, for the 1990 film "The Crossing"
Sinéad O'Connor, for her 1992 album Am I Not Your Girl?
Elton John & Bonnie Raitt, for the 1993 album Duets
Ruth Brown, for her 1997 album R+B = Ruth Brown
Etta James, for her 2001 album Blue Gardenia
Diana Krall, for her 2001 album The Look of Love
Jason Donovan, for his 2008 album Let It Be Me
Dex Romweber Duo, from their 2009 album "Ruins of Berlin"

 

[DaleMac]

It has also been posted many times (well, maybe not many):

https://forums.irealpro.com/threads...ung-Edward-Heyman)-Ketty-Lester-version.3983/

And I'll mention again my 2nd favorite version:
Josh Nelson, on his in 2007 album "Let it Go"

 

[pdxdjazz]

Right you are! It wasn't in my 4k+ library... I forget to do a forum search (now that it works) that should have been my first step...
)BOB

 

[DaleMac]

I just realized, Victor Young died in 1956, never hearing all the great versions of this song, and so many of his other compositions that became the most standard of jazz standards! Kinda sad.

 

[Keith88]

Yet another version!

As it has been posted before, I suppose another version won't hurt. I use the one below for my solo piano gigs (accompanied by iReal Pro). It is a pretty vanilla version but I added a I-vi-ii-V repeating tag to end the tune. My changes are somewhat different from those that Bob used in the version posted above. I play it as a rhumba with the Latin - Cuba: Bolero style at 100 - 110 bpm.

Love Letters - Victor Young

 

[engelbach]

My arrangement of the tune, in Swing Two-Four time.

The first Head uses basic chords. The Solos substitute some chords and add others. The last Head incorporates a couple of the new chords from the Solos.

Love Letters-Rev JE - Victor Young

Cheers,
Jer