Body and Soul (1930)

Green/Heyman/Sour/Eyton

My life's a hell you’re making

You know I'm yours for just the taking

I'd gladly surrender myself to you
Body and soul

Many songs are about the pain of love, sadness, and surrender - but Body and Soul has always seemed especially full of desperation, with some of the most urgent words to a beloved. I would have said that the version I knew for so long, Billie Holiday's version, was the most heartbreaking until Amy Winehouse recorded the song (with Tony Bennett) not long before her death.

VERSE 

You're making me blue

All that you do

Seems unfair

You try not to hear

Turn a deaf ear

To my prayer

It seems you don't want to see

What you are doing to me

My arms are waiting to caress you

And to my heart they long to press you, sweet heart

CHORUS

My heart is sad and lonely

For you I cry

For you, dear, only

I tell you I mean it

I'm all for you

Body and soul

I spend my days in longing

And wondering it's me you're wronging

Why haven't you seen it

I'm all for you

Body and soul

I can't believe it

It hard to conceive it

That you'd turn away romance

Are you pretending

Don't say it's the ending

I wish I could have one more chance to prove, dear

My life a hell you’re making

You know I'm yours for just the taking

I'd gladly surrender

Myself to you

Body and soul

VERSE 2

Life's dreary for me

Day's seem to be long as years

I've looked for the sun

But can see none

Through my tears

Your heart must be like a stone

To leave me like this alone

When you could make my life worth living

By taking what I'm set on giving, sweetheart