Dearly Beloved is a 1942 American standard with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was introduced in the Columbia Pictures musical You Were Never Lovelier, with Fred Astaire performing it with Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra on November 19, 1942. The song is a romantic ballad in the classic big band and vocal pop style and appears on the You Were Never Lovelier soundtrack. It has since become a widely recorded standard, covered by artists such as Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Dinah Shore, June Christy, Nancy Wilson and Tony Bennett, among others. The sheet music was published in 1942 by Chappell & Co., and Kern and Mercer were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for this tune.
