You’ll Never Know is a 1940s song that popped up recently in the award-winning film ‘The Shape of Water’. When I went to see the movie I was very pleased to hear the original Alice Faye version featured prominently in several scenes.

Funnily enough, I’d recently recorded a version myself, as it’s one of my favourite songs. It’s one of those beautiful standards that’s so emotive to sing that I sometimes struggle not to burst into tears when I’m performing it – back then they certainly knew how to write songs that would pull at your heartstrings!

So I put together a little video of my recording and added some trivia about the song – I’m always fascinated to find out the background of these vintage songs.

Here it is – I hope you like it.

You’ll Never Know – history and background

You’ll Never Know was written by Harry Warren (music) and Mack Gordon (lyrics) and was introduced in the 1943 movie ‘Hello Frisco Hello’ by popular singer of the day Alice Faye.

The movie ‘Hello Frisco Hello’ was released by 20th Century-Fox and filmed in Technicolor. Set in San Francisco, it told the story of vaudeville performers around the period of the Panama Pacific Exposition of 1915, and starred Alice Faye, John Payne, Lynn Bari and Jack Oakie.

The song’s sentimental lyrics – based on a poem written by a young wartime bride from Oklahoma – captured the hearts of millions of people who were missing their loved ones.

With lines such as ‘you went away… and my heart went with you’, it really struck a chord with couples who had been separated with no guarantee of being reunited, and it became something of a World War 2 anthem.

Funnily enough, according to Philip Furia and Michael Lasser, the song’s main melodic theme came from military inspiration. In their book The Poets of Tin Pan Alley they quote Warren:

“You know my big Academy Award song, “You’ll Never Know”? Well, it wasn’t entirely original – I did a little steal on that one.  Songwriters always borrow a few bars here and there.  I don’t know how the hell it came to me but I was thinking about the notes in a bugle call and dammit if it wasn’t just what I wanted to get “You’ll Never Know” started”

The song wasn’t just popular with the public – it also won the 1943 Academy Award for best original song.

Faye went on to perform the song again in her 1944 film ‘Four Jills in a Jeep’. Sadly however, she never released a recorded version of it due to a clause in her contract with Fox. She soon faded away from the public eye; replaced by bigger stars such as Betty Grable.

Alice Faye was an incredible talent and I can’t understand how she isn’t more widely remembered. In my opinion she delivered the definitive version of this song, although many other performers came to be better known for it, including Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Vera Lynn, whose version was very popular with British audiences.

Around this time the musicians’ recording strike of 1942 to 1944 prevented singers from recording songs with any musical accompaniment, leading artistes such as Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes to record their versions ‘a capella’ (using only voices and no instruments).

They used backing singers to replace the music, and I must say it’s very cleverly done, as you can hardly tell there’s anything missing!

As the years went by singers such as Doris Day , Shirley Bassey, and Michael Buble continued to bring back this beautiful song, and no matter what era it found itself in, it never failed to inspire emotion.

It was the first song ever recorded by a very young Barbara Streisand, in 1955 at the age of 13. Despite her tender years that distinctive voice still shines out as she effortlessly does the song justice.

You’ll Never Know in the movies

You’ll Never Know has continued to be a hit on the silver screen too. It was used to great effect in the opening scene of Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film ‘Alice doesn’t live here anymore’ , perhaps setting the trend for emotive vintage songs providing uneasy backdrops for violent movies.

The Shape of Water

This evergreen song has most recently been brought back into the public eye in Guillermo del Toro’s incredible film ‘The Shape of Water’, starring Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, and featuring a spell-binding performance from the wonderful Sally Hawkins.

The film is set in the 1950s and features lots of gorgeous vintage music, including one of my absolute favourites ‘I know why and so do you’ – I was so pleased when that little gem popped up – I had to restrain myself from singing along in the cinema 😉

Fantasy sequences and playful dance scenes throughout the movie mean that vintage songs and style were seamlessly sewn into the plot, despite the storyline being VERY different to your typical vintage Hollywood movie. I won’t say anymore because, you know – spoilers 😉

If you haven’t seen the film, do yourself a favour and go and see it, as it’s incredible – especially if you’re a fan of the 1940s and 1950s.

You’ll Never Know – Lyrics

You’ll never know just how much I miss you
You’ll never know just how much I care
And if I tried, I still couldn’t hide my love for you
You ought to know, for haven’t I told you so
A million or more times?

You went away and my heart went with you
I speak your name in my every prayer
If there is some other way to prove that I love you
I swear I don’t know how
You’ll never know if you don’t know now

You went away and my heart went with you I speak your name in my every prayer
If there is some other way to prove that I love you
I swear I don’t know how
You’ll never know if you don’t know now

You’ll never know if you don’t know now