You'll Never Know - Alice Faye

MadPriest has a send-in-your-song contest to see which of the favorite love songs of his readers will win a play from his vast collection of recordings - 50,000 songs, he says. I have more than one favorite love song, but I sent in "You'll Never Know", sung by Alice Faye (not Frank Sinatra or Dick Haynes) as one of my favorites. Now he's in pain and can't post often, and who knows when he will get back to the contest, and, in any case, I may not win a place of honor. Alice sang the song in a movie, "Hello, Frisco, Hello" in 1943. I saw the film at the tender age of nine, but I was already a full-blown romantic. I loved the song at the time, and I have loved it ever since. Alice, with her lovely and sexy alto voice, sings the song beautifully.

Since I was feeling impatient waiting for MadPriest, I searched for and found the movie clip of her singing the song on YouTube. Praise be! I even remembered that in the movie, she sang the song on the phone. John Payne starred opposite her in the film.

Alice married Phil Harris, the band leader in 1941, and their marriage lasted for 54 years, until Phil died. They had two children named appropriately, Alice, Jr and Phyllis. The word was that Phil liked his booze, and he joked about it himself. I don't know how much substance there was to the story, but it didn't affect his marriage nor his longevity. Alice and Phil both loved New Orleans, which, of course, endeared them to me. Can you believe that Phil's original first name was Wonga? Maybe that was the source of his comedic side.

Here's the link to her bio and to Phil's.