In the show, the characters of Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan sing this song as they hesitantly declare their love for one another, yet are too shy to express their true feelings.
The song was in turn inspired by lines of dialogue from Ferenc Molnár's original Liliom, the source material for the musical.
The song was introduced by John Raitt[1] as "Billy Bigelow" and Jan Clayton as "Julie" in the original Broadway production.
[2] The song was performed in the 1956 film version Carousel by Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.
There were four hit versions of the song in 1945: Perry Como (#3), Frank Sinatra (#7), Bing Crosby (#8) and Harry James (#8).