Maybe You’ll Be There

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Maybe You’ll Be There (m. Rube Bloom, w. Sammy Gallop) – published 1947

Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra, vocals: Charles LaVere and chorus – issued in May 1948 on the 78 rpm single Decca 24403, b/w “Dark Eyes”

Billie Holiday, accompanied by Jimmy Rowles on piano – live radio broadcast from Billy Berg’s Club in Hollywood, June 1949

Recording info and credits from billieholidaysongs.com:

Live Session #26 [radio broadcast] Los Angeles, June/1949, Red Norvo Orchestra

Recorded at Billy Berg’s Club in Hollywood, this session went on air only in June, 1949 in the Gene Norman’s Just Jazz radio show. She sang 10 songs in the show. This is the merit of this session: it was the one where Billie sang the most previously unrecorded songs in a live presentation.

The Orioles — issued in May 1954 on Jubilee 45-5143, c/w “Drowning Every Hope I Ever Had” — note: 45cat.com indicates that “Maybe You’ll Be There” is the B-side, while Discogs.com has it as the A-side of the single

Other vocal harmony groups to record the song include Lee Andrews and the Hearts (1954), LaCille Watkins and the Belltones (1956), the Five Keys (1957), and Billy and the Essentials (1962).

Lee Andrews and the Hearts — issued in 1954 on the single Rainbow Records 45-252, b/w “Baby Come Back” (Lee Andrews)

LaCille Watkins and the Belltones — issued in 1956 on Kapp K-145X, b/w “His Hand in Mine”

Sunny Gale — issued in December 1956 on the single Decca 9-30157, as the B-side of “(I Have Lived, I Have Loved) I Have You!”

Frank Sinatra – recorded on 1 May 1957 with arrangement by Gordon Jenkins; released on Where Are You?

The Five Keys – issued on 18 February 1957 on the album On Stage!, (US) Capitol Records T-828 (Mono)

Lee Wiley with Billy Butterfield and his Orchestra, from the 1957 album A Touch of the Blues

Donna Hightower – from Take One!, 1958

From an enthusiastic Amazon.com review by Gary L. Connely (Hercules, CA) of a CD containing Take One! and Hightower’s followup, Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You:

“Take One!” the LP, was recorded in a session that was actually supposed to be for Dakota Staton. Ms Staton canceled at the last minute and producer Dave Cavanaugh, now stuck with Sid Feller’s All-Stars, featuring the likes of saxman Ben Webster, trumpeter Joe Wilder, guitarist Mundell Lowe and pianist Hank Jones cooling their heels with nobody to play for, suddenly remembered Ms Hightower, (who was working for a publishing company in Brooklyn). With three hours notice and no rehersal, Ms Hightower stepped in and stepped up – and man-oh-man, did she nail it!