If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)

{{Infobox song

| name = If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)

| cover = image:If-i-could-be-with-you.jpg

| caption = Sheet music cover, 1926

| alt =

| type =

| written =

| published = 1926

| writer =

| composer = James P. Johnson

| lyricist = Henry Creamer

}}

"If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)" is a popular song, with music by James P. Johnson and lyrics by Henry Creamer. Published in 1926, the song was first recorded by Clarence Williams' Blue Five with vocalist Eva Taylor in 1927.{{cite web| title=If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)| url=http://www.jazzstandards.com/compositions-1/ificouldbewithyou.htm| publisher=JazzStandards.com| accessdate=2009-02-20}} It was popularized by the 1930 recording by McKinney's Cotton Pickers, who used it as their theme song{{cite book |title=Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop—A History |last1=Driggs |first1=Frank |last2=Haddix |first2=Chuck |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press US |isbn=0-19-530712-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/kansascityjazzfr00fran/page/89 89] |url=https://archive.org/details/kansascityjazzfr00fran/page/89 }} and by Louis Armstrong's record for Okeh Records (catalogue No.41448), both of which featured in the charts of 1930.{{cite book|last1=Whitburn|first1=Joel|title=Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954|date=1986|publisher=Record Research Inc|location=Wisconsin, USA|isbn=0-89820-083-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/33 33]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/joelwpopmemories00whit/page/33}} Armstrong's recording of "If I Could Be with You" is defined by his sparse vocal style and ornamental virtuosic trumpet-playing.{{Cite book|last=Brothers|first=Thomas|title=Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2014|isbn=978-0-393-06582-4|location=New York, NY|pages=401–2}}