"We'll Be Together Again" is a jazz standard composed by pianist and arranger Carl Fischer with lyrics by Frankie Laine, written in 1945 during the closing months of World War II. Fischer was serving as Laine's musical director at the time, and he brought the melody to Laine and asked him to craft lyrics, resulting in a tender ballad that captured the wartime longing of separated lovers. Though Fischer and Laine recorded it together, the Pied Pipers actually released their version first. Songwriter Alec Wilder singled out the tune for its "pop ballad sophistication," noting that it stood apart from the theater ballads of Kern, Rodgers, or Gershwin and bore a character closer to Harold Arlen's sensibility. The harmony is distinctive, with the bridge employing chromatically approached two-five-one progressions that give the melody an understated emotional depth. The song was one of three major hits for Fischer, alongside "Who Wouldn't Love You" and "It Started All Over Again," though he largely subordinated his own career to support Laine's rise and was working on larger concert pieces like his "Indian Suite" before his death in 1954. Notable recordings include Benny Carter's graceful alto saxophone interpretation, Ben Webster's breathy tenor version with strings, and Louis Armstrong's blues-inflected 1957 reading produced by Norman Granz. The tune has continued to attract musicians across generations, from Joe Pass and J.J. Johnson to Toots Thielemans on harmonica.
