Love Me or Leave Me is a 1928 popular song written by Walter Donaldson (music) and Gus Kahn (lyrics). It was introduced in the Broadway musical Whoopee!, which opened in December 1928. The original and iconic recording was by Ruth Etting for Columbia Records, cut on December 17, 1928, and it reached number two on the charts in 1929. The tune soon became a vaudeville and pop standard, with popular versions by Guy Lombardo, Leo Reisman, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis Jr., Lena Horne, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and many others. In 1955 the song provided the title for the Doris Day biopic Love Me or Leave Me, and Day’s soundtrack recording helped revive its popularity; that same year Davis Jr. and Horne also enjoyed chart success with their versions. Nina Simone included it on her debut album Little Girl Blue (1958) with a single release in 1959; Ella Fitzgerald’s 1962 Verve version on Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson won the Grammy in 1963. The tune remains a jazz standard, noted for its shifting mood between minor and major keys, and it is sometimes cited as a contrafact of Lullaby of Birdland.
