When I Lost You

Words & Music by Irving Berlin, 1912
Recorded by The Mills Brothers,1948


A  A9   A  F#m             G#7
I lost the sun - shine and ro - ses,

E E7sus4 E7            D9  A
I  lost the hea - vens of blue,

F#7         Gdim        F#7  D9    Bm
 I lost the beau - ti - ful rain - bow,

B7         Cdim   B7   E7
I lost the morn - ing dew;

A  A9   A  F#m       G#7
I lost the angel who gave me

 E   E7sus4 E7              D9  A      G#7
Sum - mer  the whole win - ter through,

F#7        Gdim   F#7        B7
I lost the glad - ness that turned into sad - ness

Edim D E7/6  A
When I lost you.

This song has a history every bit as poignant as Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven."

In 1912, Irving Berlin married 20-year-old Dorothy Goetz -- but the union was doomed. Dorothy caught typhoid fever, probably on their honeymoon, and became bedridden. Barely five months after the wedding, she passed away. Berlin poured his grief into a song that many feel was his most personal ever.

Suggested by frequent visitor Joe Burke.

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.