"You Belong to Me" is a traditional pop ballad published in Hollywood on April 21, 1952, with music and lyrics by Chilton Price, Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart. Price first wrote it almost entirely as a wartime song called "Hurry Home to Me", an American woman's plea to a sweetheart serving overseas in World War II. King and Stewart adjusted the music and lyrics, turned it into a universal song about separated lovers and retitled it. The song is in English and runs about three minutes and six seconds.
Joni James made the first recording in Chicago in February 1952, released on Sharp Records in March and reissued on MGM in August. Jo Stafford, with Paul Weston and his Orchestra, recorded it for Columbia in June 1952, and her version became the most popular, reaching No. 1 on the UK and US singles charts and topping the UK sheet-music chart. Patti Page, Dean Martin and Sue Thompson also had hits with the song in early 1952, and Ella Fitzgerald covered it.
