“I Want To Be Loved (But Only By You)” is a 1947 ballad recorded by Savannah Churchill. The single was Churchill’s most successful release on the R&B charts, reaching number one, and staying there for 8 weeks. It settled at 22 on the for year 1947. It also reached 21 on the U.S. pop charts.
It was Churchill’s third release on the Manor label and her first with vocal group backing (the Sentimentalists, who would shortly thereafter rename themselves the Four Tunes). While the record label indicates that Churchill wrote this song, William “Pat” Best, a member of The Sentimentalists, was the actual author.
Savannah Churchill (1915-1974) performed pop, jazz, and blues music in the 1940s and 1950s.
An active performer, she toured America and got mobbed in some places, a true star of her times. In 1948 she did a music video (or cameo) in the movie Miracle in Harlem with the Lynn Proctor Trio accompanying her on “I Want to Be Loved.” She landed an acting/singing part in Souls of Sin, directed by Powell Lindsay and co-starring Jimmy Wright and Billie Allen, the following year…Arco Records promoted her as “Sex-Sational,” and released seven Savannah Churchill singles from 1949 to 1950 recorded with the likes of the Red Norva Quintet, the Four Tunes, and the Striders.
AllMusic
Sadly, her career more or less ended when a drunk fell on her from the balcony while she was performing in 1956. Though she died many years later, she never fully recovered.