I’ll Get By (As Long as I Have You

“I’ll Get By (As Long as I Have You)” is a popular song with music by Fred E. Ahlert and lyrics by Roy Turk that was published in 1928. Versions by Nick Lucas, Aileen Stanley and, most successfully, Ruth Etting, all charted in America in 1929.In 1944 the song achieved its biggest success with a version by Harry James and His Orchestra featuring vocalist Dick Haymes – an April 1941 recording re-released owing to a stipulation by the 1942–44 musicians’ strike that prevented recording of new material. The single debuted in April 1944 on Billboard’s National Best Selling Retail Records chart and reached number one in the chart dated June 10, 1944 – the seventh of Harry James’s nine US number ones; it stayed at number one for four non-consecutive weeks. The single topped Billboard’s Most Played Juke Box Records chart for six weeks.
A recording by The Ink Spots featuring tenor Bill Kenny also reached Billboard’s Top Ten in 1944. A version by the King Sisters peaked at no. 12. The song featured in the Variety chart 10 Best Sellers on Coin-Machines in the week dated June 21, 1944. The song was also placed in the year-end 1944 Top Ten of Lucky Strike’s Your hit Parade. “I’ll Get By” ranked third in a 1944 Billboard poll of the best-selling sheet music among GIs stationed in training camps and in Europe.