"Always" is a popular song written and composed by Irving Berlin in 1925, and Berlin wrote both the music and the lyrics. He gave it to his wife, Ellin Mackay, as a wedding gift, and the couple married in 1926. He also handed her its substantial royalties. Although a legend, repeated by Groucho Marx, claimed it was written for the musical The Cocoanuts, it was never meant for that show and is not included in it. The song is a ballad with English lyrics and is regarded as a jazz and popular vocal standard. Thematically, it is a sequel to Berlin's earlier song “When I Lost You”, which concerned the death of his first wife, Dorothy.
The original recording was made by Irving Kaufman on 30 January 1926, and the song became a hit that year in recordings by George Olsen and others. It was featured at the end of the 1928 film Lonesome, sung by Deanna Durbin in Christmas Holiday (1944), performed by Ray Noble in The Pride of the Yankees (1942), and it was an important plot element in Noel Coward's play Blithe Spirit. Patsy Cline's version was released posthumously in 1980 and reached number 18 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The song entered the public domain on 1 January 2021.
