"If I Should Lose You": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

"If I Should Lose You"

The Film Music of Ralph Rainger:
Thanks for the Memory
The Chuck Berghofer Trio, Jan Lundgren, Joe La Barbera with vocals by Sue Raney

Other songs written for Rose of the Rancho currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook: none

"If I Should Lose You" premiered in the Paramount Pictures movie Rose of the Rancho released on January 10, 1936. The release date itself supports the time of the song's composition being at most 1935 as it would not have been possible for the song to have been written in '36 given the film's release date. Furthermore several recordings of the song appeared in '35 by artists such as the Isham Jones Orchestra with a vocal by Woody Herman before he started his own band, as well as by Freddy Martin and Richard Himber and his Ritz-Carlton Orchestra whose recording with vocal by Stuart Allen was released on October 21, 1935 (Victor 25179). The Himber record was the song's only appearnace on the charts finally finding its way there on January 4, '36, just about the time tthe movie was released, and remaining there for 6 weeks reaching its highest position at # 15. It was not uncommon for a movie studio to allow publication of sheet music from a movie's score before the film's release for early promotion purposes. No record of publication for the song preceeding 1935 has been found by us. The Himber recording can be heard as the first song on a YouTube playlist on the video just below.

Richard Himber and his Ritz-Carlton Orchestra
with vocal by Stuart Allen (released October 21, 1935 -- (Please note, the Rainger Robin song being discussed here is not to be confused with a 1920's song by Earl Burtnett and Robert Stowell having the same title, the sheet music for which is mistakenly used to illustrate the Himber recording of the Rainger/Robin tune on the YouTube video above.)

The movie starred early 20th century Metropolitan Opera diva Gladys Swarthout, John Boles, Charles Bickford and Grace Bradley. Although Boles probably introduced the song in the film, Swarthout has also been mentioned as performing it there. While discussing the 1984 recording by Sinatra, music critic Will Friedwald claims it was introduced by "megastiffs" Boles and Swarthout in the movie. Finally it is d ifficult to know for sure in that it is no longer easy, if possible at all, to see the film. Dick Bank writes in his liner notes for the album The Film Music of Ralph Rainger, "The song almost died with the film. One of Paramount's worst of 1936 [and] had a limited run." Furthermore, it has never been on video. No recording of "If I Should Lose You" by John Boles, or for that matter by Swarthout, has been located by us. Adding to the difficulty of viewing the movie, IMDB notes Rose of the Rancho was

"one of over 700 Paramount productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since. However, because of legal complications, this particular title was not included in the original television package and may have never been televised."

In any case, the movie is a romantic comedy about Spanish settlers in California and was adapted from a 1906 Broadway show of the same title by David Belasco and Richard Walton Tully. Clive Hirschhorn in his book, The Hollywood Musical, describes the movie version as an “uneasy mix of operetta and low comedy.”

As Dick Banks points out in his liner notes for the album The Film Music of Ralph Rainger, currently, there are more than two hundred instrumental and vocal recordings of "If I Should Lose You." Furthermore he writes that the song was paid virtually no attention "until Charlie Parker with Strings caused a sensation in November 1949," setting the tune on its path to becoming a standard, most specifically a jazz standard, the great majority of versions recorded over the decades being either pure jazz or jazz inflected. See the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet at left for a chronological sampling from this list.

Banks' favorites are Chris Connor with Stan Kenton which he calls "a classic" and the "great" clarinetist Buddy De Franco recording of 1953-54 (a 22 minute tour de force).

Click here to read lyrics for "If I Should Lose You" as sung by Frank Sinatra on the album
L.A. Is My Lady.

from Piano Guy (11/02/2015): Great tune with music by Ralph Rainger and lyrics by Leo Robin from the 1936 film Rose of the Rancho.

Response (1) from Cafe Songbook: (11/04/2005) Dear Piano Guy, Thanks for reminding us what a good song "If I Should Lose You" is. Apparently we had lost site of it. As a result of your comment we will add a page for "If I Should Lose You" on the CafeSongbook.com site. When it is up we will drop you a line and a link.

Response (2) from Cafe Songbook: (12/05/2005): It took us a while but here is our new page for the Rainger/Robin song "If I Should Lose You."

• Sheila Jordan: Paolafirenze
• Charlie Parker: Don Kaart - All That Jazz - Mainstream Jazz
• Richard Himber: pax41
• Chick Corea / Stephano Bollani: p3ximus

Notes

• For a complete listing of songs used in this movie, see IMDB soundtracks.
• Click image to view at Amazon.
• 1953 Chris Connor (from the album A Portrait of Chris )
• 1953-54 Buddy De Franco (from the 2 CD set Buddy's Blues / Bright One )

Cite this page: "If I Should Lose You": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video, Cafe Songbook, https://greatamericansongbook.net/pages/songs/i/if_I_should-lose-you.html