"If I Loved You" is a show tune from Carousel, the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. In the show, Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan sing it as they hesitantly declare their love for one another, yet are too shy to express their true feelings. Hammerstein drew on lines of dialogue from Ferenc Molnár's original play Liliom, the source material for the musical. John Raitt as Billy and Jan Clayton as Julie introduced the song on Broadway, and the 1956 film version had Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones sing it. The Broadway original cast recording of 1945 is the earliest album featuring the song.
In 1945 four hit versions appeared: Perry Como reached number three, Frank Sinatra number seven, and Bing Crosby and Harry James both number eight. Roy Hamilton's 1954 recording reached number four on Billboard's Best Sellers in Stores chart, and a Chad & Jeremy version reached number sixteen on Canada's RPM chart in 1965. Vagabon recorded a version for the 2023 film Red, White & Royal Blue. The song has become a standard in the popular repertoire.
