You Must Believe in Spring is a jazz ballad with a rich international lineage. The music comes from Michel Legrand's 1967 French tune La chanson de Maxence, written for Jacques Demy's film The Young Girls of Rochefort. The English lyrics were added by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The first English release was by Marlena Shaw in 1972. A famous instrumental and vocal interpretation appears on Bill Evans' You Must Believe in Spring, recorded in 1977 and released in 1980, and the song was also featured on the Together Again album with Tony Bennett, recorded in 1976 and issued in 1977. Since then it has been covered by many artists, including Sylvia Syms on her 1991 album You Must Believe in Spring: The Words of Alan & Marilyn Bergman. The tune is widely considered a jazz standard, commonly performed as a vocal ballad or piano gem.
