This Can't Be Love is a standard composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Lorenz Hart for the 1938 Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse, their innovative adaptation of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors produced and directed by George Abbott. The song was introduced in the original production by Marcy Wescott and Eddie Albert alongside another enduring standard from the same score, Falling in Love with Love. The lyric plays on the ironic premise that because falling in love feels so effortless and painless, it cannot possibly be the real thing, delivered with Hart's trademark wit and emotional economy. The verse features chromatic, sinuous melodic lines that build tension before resolving into the more diatonic, rhythmically direct refrain. Musicologist Alec Wilder described the composition as exhibiting control, direction, and a palpable sense of enjoyment in its creation. The song entered the jazz repertoire almost immediately after its Broadway debut and has remained a favorite vehicle for improvisation across styles. Benny Goodman recorded a definitive swing-era version in 1938, and subsequent interpretations by Artie Shaw, Erroll Garner, Red Norvo with Tal Farlow and Charles Mingus, Flip Phillips, and Ella Fitzgerald with Oscar Peterson have demonstrated the tune's adaptability to settings ranging from big band swing to intimate piano trio. The song also appeared in the 1948 film Words and Music and the 1962 film Jumbo.
