When I Fall in Love

"When I Fall in Love" is a popular song, written by Victor Young (music) and Edward Heyman (lyrics). It was introduced in Howard Hughes' last film One Minute to Zero as the instrumental titled "Theme from One Minute to Zero". Jeri Southern sang on the first vocal recording released in April 1952 with the song's composer, Victor Young, handling the arranging and conducting duties. The song has become a standard, with many artists recording it; the first hit version was sung by Doris Day released in July 1952.

Day's recording was made on June 5, 1952. It was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 39786 and issued with the flip side "Take Me in Your Arms". The song reached number 20 on the Billboard chart.

A 1996 recording by Natalie Cole, sung as a duet with her father Nat King Cole using vocals from his 1956 version, won 1996 Grammys for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and Best Instrumental Arrangement with Accompanying Vocal(s).

The version of "When I Fall in Love" by English singer-songwriter Rick Astley was released on November 30, 1987, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the release of Nat King Cole's version of the song. This single is mainly remembered for a closely fought contest for UK Christmas number one. Rivals EMI, hoping to see their act, Pet Shop Boys, reach number one with "Always on My Mind", re-released the version by Nat King Cole. This led to a slow down of purchases of Astley's version, allowing Pet Shop Boys to reach the coveted top spot. Despite selling over 250,000 copies and gaining a Silver certification from the BPI, it peaked in the UK at number 2 for two weeks. The re-release by Nat King Cole reached number 4. Since the single was released as a double A-side, the other half of the single was "My Arms Keep Missing You", which was successful in its own right in Europe. In 2019, Astley recorded and released a "reimagined" version of the song for his album The Best of Me, which features a new piano arrangement. On November 24, 2022, the original music video was remastered to 1080p HD for a limited edition 12" double A-side red vinyl issue of the "Love This Christmas" single.

A review in Pan-European magazine Music & Media considered that Astley's cover version as "surprisingly matching the original" and added: "With the romantic string arrangements and Astley's mature vocals, the perfect seasonal single, bound for a no. 1 in the UK". When reviewing the parent album, British magazine Music Week underlined the track, adding that Astley "stretches his vocal chords on a credible and reverent recreation" of Cole's song. In the same magazine, Jerry Smith deemed it a potential hit in spite of "the cloying strings arrangement", and added that this cover was "not a patch" on Cole's original version. Chris Heath of Smash Hits praised the song as "brilliantly effective" with a "plinkety-plonkety orchestration and Rick crooning away, sounding uncannily like a 50 year old Frank Sinatra type". In another issue of the same magazine, Lola Borg considered it as "truly splendid" and added that Astley "ably croons a slushy lump of woefulness" and that this version is similar to the original since "the sweeping strings are exactly the same, note for note". Retrospectively, in 2025, Thomas Edward of Smooth Radio ranked what he called "a beautiful cover" number six in his list of "Rick Astley's 10 greatest songs, ever".

CD single

7-inch single

12-inch maxi-single