- By Myself is a song composed by Arthur Schwartz with lyrics by Howard Dietz.
- It expresses the sadness of being alone but also the satisfaction of self reliance and achievement.
- The tune uses an unusual AABC form and moves between G minor and F major, giving it harmonic complexity.
- It was written for the 1937 Broadway musical Between the Devil, where Jack Buchanan introduced the ballad, and it gained fame when Fred Astaire performed it in the 1953 film The Band Wagon, where it reached No. 3 on the Billboard chart.
- Today it is considered a jazz standard and has been recorded by many artists, including Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, and Tony Bennett; the Band Wagon soundtrack features the famous rendition.
