"I Love You" is a song by Cole Porter, who wrote the music and lyrics in 1944 for the Broadway musical Mexican Hayride. Wilbur Evans first sang it, in a live performance on 28 January 1944. The New York Times review called it the best number in Porter's score. Porter's friend Monty Woolley argued that Porter could not make the clichéd title "I Love You", with banal lines, work; Porter accepted the challenge, and the song topped the hit parade. Porter remarked that the superior melody overcame the ordinary lyric.
Bing Crosby recorded it in February 1944, and his version topped the Billboard charts for five weeks during an 18-week stay. Other charted versions were by Tommy Tucker, Enric Madriguera, Jo Stafford and Perry Como. In 1945 Ira B. Arnstein sued Porter for plagiarism over this song and three others; the jury dismissed the charges. The song is described as a popular jazz standard, with later recordings by Oscar Peterson (1953), Jackie McLean (1960) and John Coltrane, among others.
