Just You, Just Me

"Just You, Just Me" is a popular song composed by Jesse Greer with lyrics by Raymond Klages, written in 1929 for the MGM musical film Marianne starring Marion Davies and Lawrence Gray. The tune features a lighthearted, romantic melody rooted in the accessible Tin Pan Alley style of the late 1920s, with a singable quality and straightforward harmony that made it an immediate commercial success. Cliff Edwards recorded the first hit version in 1929, reaching number 13 on the pop charts, and the song quickly entered the repertoire of dance bands and vocalists. Over the following decades, "Just You, Just Me" transitioned from a pop standard into a staple of the jazz repertoire, embraced by swing-era big bands and bebop combos alike. Its chord progression proved especially fertile ground for improvisers, and its harmonic framework famously served as the basis for Thelonious Monk's 1948 contrafact "Evidence," originally titled "Justice" as a wordplay on "Just Us." The song has been recorded by well over a hundred artists across multiple genres, with notable interpretations by Red Norvo, Benny Carter, Eddie Heywood, Buddy Rich, and Monk himself. Among Jesse Greer's many contributions to Broadway and Hollywood musicals of the 1920s and 1930s, "Just You, Just Me" stands as his most enduring and widely recognized work, far outlasting the modest film that introduced it.