Diane is a song by Erno Rapee

Erno Rapee

Ernö Rapée was one of the most prolific American symphonic conductors in the first half of the 20th Century...

 and Lew Pollack

Lew Pollack

Lew Pollack was a song composer active during the 1920s and the 1930s.Pollack was born in New York. Among his best known songs are "Charmaine" and "Diane" with Ernö Rapée, "Miss Annabelle Lee", "Two Cigarettes in the Dark", "At the Codfish Ball" , and Go In and Out The Window, now a...

 originally written as a theme song for the 1927 classic silent movie Seventh Heaven. In 1928, The Nat Shilkret Orchestra had a hit with the song.
The song appears (without lyrics) on the 1961 Miles Davis Quintet

Miles Davis Quintet

The Miles Davis Quintet was an American jazz band from 1955 to early 1969 led by Miles Davis. The quintet underwent frequent personnel changes toward its metamorphosis into a different ensemble in 1969...

 album Steamin'

Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

Steamin' with the Miles Davis Quintet is an album recorded in 1956 by Miles Davis. Two sessions on May 11, 1956 and October 26 in the same year resulted in four albums—this one, Relaxin' with The Miles Davis Quintet, Workin' with The Miles Davis Quintet and Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet...

, originally recorded in 1956.

Mario Lanza

Mario Lanza

right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....

 sang this song on radio, and his recording has been released in a compilation album from 1996, "Be My Love." Sergio Franchi

Sergio Franchi

Sergio Franchi was an Italian tenor.Franchi was born in Cremona, Italy. His father wanted him to become an electrical engineer, so he studied both music and engineering simultaneously. The family moved to South Africa in 1952, where Sergio worked part-time as a draftsman, while continuing to study...

 recorded this song on his 1963 RCA Victor Red Seal album Women in My Life.

The song was a popular single by Irish band The Bachelors

The Bachelors

The Bachelors are a popular music group, originating from Dublin, Ireland.-Career:The founding members of the group were Conleth Cluskey , Declan Cluskey , and John Stokes...

 released in 25 January 1964 on the Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 label (Decca F11799) and produced by Shel Talmy

Shel Talmy

Shel Talmy is an American record producer, songwriter, arranger best known for his work in London with The Who and The Kinks in the 1960s, with a role in many other English bands including Cat Stevens and Pentangle...

. It reached Number 1 in the UK's Record Retailer

Record Retailer

Record Retailer was a trade newspaper for the UK record industry. It was founded in August 1959 as a monthly newspaper covering both labels and dealers. Its founding editor was Roy Parker...

 chart (though not in the Pick of the Pops

Pick of the Pops

Pick of the Pops is a BBC Radio programme, originally based on the Top 20 UK singles chart and first broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in 1955. It transferred to BBC Radio 1 from 1967...

 chart used by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 or the NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 chart used by Radio Luxembourg

Radio Luxembourg (English)

Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....

). In the US, "Diane" was The Bachelors most successful single, peaking at number ten on the Top 40 charts in 1964.

Jim Reeves

Jim Reeves

James Travis Reeves , better known as Jim Reeves, was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well-known for being a practitioner of the Nashville sound...

 also covered the song in the 1950s and so did The Mudballs in the 1990s, in the 2000s active as The Cardinals. Their recording has never been released officially though. Billy May

Billy May

William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...

 and Vic Damone

Vic Damone

Vic Damone is an American singer and entertainer.- Early life :Damone was born Vito Rocco Farinola in Brooklyn, New York to French-Italian immigrants based in Bari, Italy—Rocco and Mamie Farinola. His father was an electrician; and his mother taught piano. His cousin was the actress and singer...

 both covered the much-recorded standard.

The song title is sometimes mistakenly referred to as 'My Diane' or confused with The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...

 song My Diane, which is a different song.