You Belong to Me

“You Belong to Me” is a popular music ballad from the 1950s. It is well known for its opening line, “See the pyramids along the Nile”. The song was published in Hollywood on April 21, 1952, and the most popular version was by Jo Stafford, reaching No. 1 on both the UK and US singles charts.

“You Belong to Me” is credited to Chilton Price, Pee Wee King, and Redd Stewart.

Price, a songwriting librarian at WAVE Radio Louisville, had written the song in its virtual entirety as “Hurry Home to Me”, envisioning the song as an American woman’s plea to a sweetheart serving overseas in World War II. Afforded songwriting credit on the song mostly in exchange for their work in promoting it, King and Stewart did slightly adjust Price’s composition musically and lyrically, shifting the focus from a wartime background “into a kind of universal song about separated lovers” (World War II having ended some years previously) and changing the title to “You Belong to Me”. Price had previously had success with another hit she had written, “Slow Poke“, under a similar arrangement with the two men.

The first recording of the song, in February 1952, was by Joni James. She had seen the sheet music in the Woods Building in Chicago, and the lyrics attracted her. She recorded the song in Chicago, and it was released in March on the local Sharp Records label. After she signed to MGM, it was reissued as her second single on that label on August 5, 1952, after Jo Stafford, Patti Page, Ella Fitzgerald and Dean Martin had covered it. James’ version was also issued on MGM Records for national distribution. The best-known version of the song in early 1952 was recorded after James, by Sue Thompson on Mercury’s country label as catalog number 6407. It was soon covered by Patti Page, whose version was issued by Mercury (catalog number 5899), with “I Went to Your Wedding” (a bigger Page hit, reaching No. 1) on the flip side. It entered the Billboard chart on August 22, 1952, and lasted 12 weeks on the chart, peaking at No. 4. A cover version by Dean Martin, released by Capitol Records (catalog number 2165), was also in play at that time. This version first entered the US chart on August 29, 1952, and remained on it for 10 weeks, reaching No. 12. All the versions were combined in the rankings on the Cash Box charts, and the song reached No. 1 on those charts as well, lasting on the chart for more than half a year.

In the UK, the song also topped the sheet music sales chart. It first entered the chart on November 1, 1952, peaking at No. 1 on December 27, where it stayed for 7 weeks. Jo Stafford’s recording was amongst the first batch to be issued in October 1952. British cover versions were also available by Larry Cross, Alma Cogan with Jimmy Watson (trumpet), Monty Norman, Dickie Valentine with Ted Heath and his Music, Victor Silvester and his Ballroom Orchestra, Jimmy Young, and Wally Fryer and his Perfect Tempo Dance Orchestra. American recordings by Patti Page, Grady Martin and his Slew Foot Five (vocal by Cecil Bayley), Dean Martin, Joni James, Ken Griffin (organ), Jan Garber and his Orchestra (vocal by Roy Cordell) and Mickey Katz (a Yiddish parody) and his Orchestra were available in the UK. In all, the song remained in the sheet music chart for 24 weeks. Despite the many recordings issued in the UK, only that by Stafford appeared in the singles sales chart.

“Music is an incomparably more powerful means and is a subtler language for expressing the thousand different moments of the soul’s moods.” – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky