"When I Fall in Love" is a romantic ballad with music by Victor Young and lyrics by Edward Heyman, composed in 1952 for the Howard Hughes film One Minute to Zero. The piece originally appeared as an instrumental theme underscoring the romance in the Korean War drama, and lyrics were added afterward, independent of the film itself. Jeri Southern recorded the first vocal version in April 1952 with Victor Young and His Orchestra, and Doris Day's subsequent recording reached number twenty on the Billboard chart. The melody is tender and soaring, built on an emotionally direct harmonic progression that gives vocalists and instrumentalists alike a vehicle for lyrical expression. Nat King Cole's 1956 recording on Love Is the Thing became the definitive vocal interpretation, while Miles Davis's muted trumpet reading on Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet helped establish the tune in the jazz repertoire. The song has maintained a broad presence across genres, recorded by artists ranging from Julie London and Linda Ronstadt to Celine Dion and Clive Griffin, whose 1993 arrangement for the film Sleepless in Seattle earned a Grammy nomination. Natalie Cole's 1996 virtual duet with her father's original recording brought renewed attention to the composition. Despite the commercial failure of the film that inspired it, "When I Fall in Love" endures as one of the most widely performed love ballads of the twentieth century.
