"Love Letters" is a ballad with music by Victor Young and lyrics by Edward Heyman, a popular song from 1945. It was first heard as an instrumental in the 1945 Paramount film Love Letters. The vocal original was recorded on 2 March 1945 by Dick Haymes with Victor Young's orchestra and released by Decca as a single coupled with "Till the End of Time". The record grew in popularity in September 1945 and reached No. 11 in the United States that year. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1945 but lost to "It Might as Well Be Spring" from State Fair.
Ketty Lester's 1962 recording for Era Records, with piano and organ arranged by Lincoln Mayorga, reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 4 in the UK, and received an RIAA gold disc. It was also used in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). Elvis Presley recorded the song in 1966, when his single reached No. 19 on the Hot 100, and again in 1970 for the album Love Letters from Elvis (1971). Alison Moyet's 1987 version reached No. 4 in the UK.
