“If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)” | Stories of Standards

Tune in to First Take with Lando and Chavis – weekdays from 6-9 am MT – for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of this song all week long!

James P Johnson (pianist) and Henry Creamer (lyricist) wrote “If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)” in 1926, one of several hit songs they produced during their brief partnership. Initially featured in “Brownskin Models”, Eva Taylor sang the first recording with her husband Clarence Williams’ Blue Five band in 1927 and the song went into the top hits lists several times in the following few years: McKinney’s Cotton Pickers (#1 in 1930; this became their theme song), Tom Gerun and His Orchestra (35 in 1930) and Louis Armstrong and His Orchestra (#13 in 1930). In 1938 the Kansas City Six recording was a hit. Jack Lemmon in his role as Ensign Pulver in the 1955 movie “Mister Roberts” sporadically whistles and sings phrases from this song. “If I Could Be With You” was one of Johnson’s biggest hits, along with “Charleston” and “Old Fashioned Love”, and the three songs produced royalties that helped him make it through the Great Depression.

James Price Johnson (1894-1955), known as the “Father of Stride Piano”, taught Fats Waller and influenced many great jazz piano players. He also wrote revues, symphonies, a piano concerto and a choral work. Known as the best piano player on the East Coast he performed on over 400 recordings, was a major piano roll player and was the first black executive of the QRS piano roll company. His 1940 opera “De Organizer”, with libretto by Langston Hughes, was performed in New York. The opera was found, restored and performed again in 2002. His performing career was ended by a stroke in 1951.

Henry Creamer (1879-1930) was a vaudeville singer and dancer who with his first partner Turner Layton wrote some of the most memorable songs of the twentieth century: “After You’ve Gone” in 1918 and “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” in 1922. Creamer formed a partnership with James P Johnson in 1926, two years after Layton had moved to London.