"I'll Be Seeing You"

Irving Kahal/Sammy Fain

Sometimes a Song is worth hearing again, and our Word of the Week brought back to me a truly beautiful song.

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Anyone with a heart will immediately hear the tone of wistful sadness in “I’ll Be Seeing You” by two time Academy Award winner Sammy Fain, with lyrics by Irving Kahal. If ever a song caught the bittersweet emotion which pleasant recollections of what is no more evoke, Sammy Fain’s melody and Irving Kahal’s lyric do it. “I’ll Be Seeing You” captures the pain of loss in a way that everyone can understand, but tempers the sadness of such loss with the sweetness of treasured memories. Not surprisingly, there’s a sad but sweet story connected the song, as well.

You might say that “I’ll Be Seeing You” was a song born too soon. Irving Kahal was at the top of his game in 1938 when he wrote the lyrics to a beautiful tune by his song-writing partner, Sammy Fain. The two had been working together for about fifteen years and were sailing high on their hit Broadway show, “Hellzapoppin’,” when they opened a new musical called, “Right This Way.” Broadway was and is a tough venue. Critics play an important part in it all, but ultimately audiences “vote with their feet” on whether a show will succeed or fail. Despite having two songs which are now regarded as the best of the Kahal’s and Fain’s collaboration, “Right This Way” closed after only fifteen performances. Talking about that big flop in later years, Sammy Fain recalled that audiences had literally walked out during the performances; and he added that in the history of Broadway shows “Right this Way” is most memorable as the answer to the question departing patrons put to the ushers: “Where’s the exit?” Ah, you can laugh looking back on such things from afar, but the laughter is often bittersweet.

Of course, Fain and Kahal’s success in the music business rested on the overall popularity of their songs, not just on any one Broadway show. That “Right this Way” failed, Irving Kahal could live with. But that no one seemed to show any interest at all in what he considered his and Fain’s best song ever? That left him devastated. I could devote an entire post to discussing just how masterfully Irving Kahal fit his sweetly unpresuming lyric to Sammy Fain’s beautiful melody. How often is it that apparent simplicity in a song is the result of nearly imperceptible strokes of genius that register not like the sound of a hammer on anvil, but like a gentle whisper heard immediately in the heart? Irving Kahal and Sammy Kahn created such a song, and somehow — perhaps because there really was just so much great music in the air in those days — their little masterpiece slid behind a chair, so to speak, and there it stayed for about five years. “I’ll Be Seeing You” finally did hit the American and British airwaves, in 1943, when the war had taken so many young men far from their homes and families, some never to return. The song became an anthem of the times and still moves listeners today. It has won a permanent place in the canon of Great American Songs.

Very sadly, Irving Kahal didn’t live to see his and Sammy Fain’s lovely masterpiece become so successful and so beloved. He had been for a few years slowly dying of kidney disease when he passed away in February of 1942 at the age of 38. Knowing how much Irving had loved the song, Sammy Fain worked many sessions with the organist for the funeral to make sure that she would play “I’ll Be Seeing You” just right as a parting tribute him.

Below is my favorite recording of the song, by the ever-amazing Tony Bennett. And I’ve attached, too, a most sweet and powerful performance of the song by a popular singer from a later era who turned her talents at mid-career, aided by Nelson Riddle, to the great songs of Swing, Linda Ronstadt. Both versions include the very lovely introductory “verse” at the beginning, which is left out other recordings. Please take a moment to enjoy the beautiful little gem that Irving Kahal was so proud of.

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Cathedral bells were tolling and our hearts sang on;
Was it the spell of Paris or the April dawn?
Who knows if we shall meet again?
But when the morning chimes ring sweet again…

I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine
Embraces all day through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children’s carousel
The chestnut trees, the wishing well
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In everything that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In everything that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you

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Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymns, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast for paid subscribers, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. Paid subscribers also receive audio-enhanced posts and on-demand access to our full archive, and may add their comments to our posts and discussions. To support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber. We value all of our subscribers, and we thank you for reading Word and Song!

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