Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones on 16th May 1929 in Flint, Michigan and grew up in Detroit, where her father led a church choir. She studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory. She won a talent contest and became a regular on the local club circuit, singing and playing piano. When she was sixteen, she sang with Charlie Parker. She later performed with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis and toured with Lionel Hampton (from whom she received the nickname "Betty Bebop"), when she perfected her scat singing of bebop.
Her career was eclipsed somewhat during the 1960s and 1970s, though a series of duets with Ray Charles in 1961, including the R&B-chart-topping "Baby, It's Cold Outside", brought her a measure of popular recognition. She recorded for various labels during this period, including Peacock, ABC-Paramount, and Atco, but was rarely satisfied with the resulting product. An episode in which a record company A&R man tried to abscond with a set of her master recordings led her to establish her own record label, Bet-Car, in 1970. Some of her most outstanding recordings were first issued on Bet-Car, including the double album The Audience with Betty Carter (1980). She was well-received at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1977 and 1978. In 1987 Carter signed with Verve Records. She won a Grammy in 1988 for her album Look What I Got! and sang in a guest appearance on The Cosby Show in that year.
She died on 26th September 1998.
You And I
Betty Carter Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
The stars would fall from the skies
If I should lose you
The leaves would wither and die
The birds in May time
Would sing a lonely refrain
And I would wander around
With you beside me
No wind in winter would blow
With you beside me
A rose would bloom in the snow
I gave you my love
But I was living a dream
And living would seem in vain
If I lost you
The lyrics to Betty Carter’s song "You and I" are a beautiful expression of love and the fear of losing someone you love. The first verse starts with an "if" statement that emphasizes the significance and intensity of the relationship's hold on the singer. In other words, losing them would be catastrophic: “If I should lose you, The stars would fall from the skies, If I should lose you, The leaves would wither and die”. The singer expresses their love towards the partner by metaphorically conveying that everything beautiful in the world would cease to exist if the partner were to leave them.
In the second verse, the singer acknowledges that loving someone comes with its challenges and fears. Even though the birds would sing and the rain would fall, the singer still feels incomplete without their partner as she continues to hate the sound of rain. However, the singer is hopeful; they continue to describe the depth of their love and the impact it has on their world: “With you beside me, No wind in winter would blow, With you beside me, A rose would bloom in the snow”.
In the final verse, the singer admits that they gave their love to their partner but feels like it might be useless since losing them would be way too much to bear. The person completes the song with the utterance of the message that love is the most important thing – more important than living, as living would seem in vain without the person they love.
Line by Line Meaning
If I should lose you
Losing you would be a crushing blow that would cause everything to fall apart.
The stars would fall from the skies
Your absence would make the world feel like it has lost its shine and everything would be dark and dismal.
The leaves would wither and die
The world would lose its color and life and everything would be bleak.
The birds in May time would sing a lonely refrain
Without you, even the pleasant sounds of spring wouldn't be enough to lift my spirits.
And I would wander around, hating the sound of rain
My sorrow and loneliness would be so all-encompassing that even the gentle sound of rain would be unbearable.
With you beside me, no wind in winter would blow
Your presence would shield me from the harshness of the world and make even the coldest winter feel warm and welcoming.
With you beside me, a rose would bloom in the snow
Your love would be so strong that it could make even the most impossible things happen, like a flower blooming in winter.
I gave you my love, but I was living a dream
I loved you deeply, but I didn't fully grasp the fragility of our relationship until now.
And living would seem in vain if I lost you
Without you, everything would lose its meaning and purpose, making life not worth living.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: RALPH E GRAHAM
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind