My Song Factory class is coming up on the Standards and Showtunes unit, covering the Great American Songbook. I mainly relate to these tunes via jazz.
There are numerous sources of jazz standards. In this post, I collect some of the ones that appear in movie musicals, and I pair each one with a well-known jazz interpretation. (Note that most of these had appeared in stage musicals many years earlier.) Enjoy!
“I Got Rhythm” from An American in Paris (1951)
“I Got Rhythm” by Sarah Vaughan
“Cotton Tail” by the Duke Ellington Orchestra – one of a million jazz tunes that use the form and chord changes of “I Got Rhythm”
“If I Were a Bell” from Guys and Dolls (1955)
“If I Were a Bell” by Miles Davis
“But Not For Me” from Girl Crazy (1943)
“But Not For Me” by John Coltrane
“Like Someone in Love” from Belle of the Yukon (1944)
“Like Someone in Love” by Björk
“My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music (1965)
“My Favorite Things” by John Coltrane
“The Way You Look Tonight” from Swing Time (1936)
“The Way You Look Tonight” by Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
“There Will Never Be Another You” from Iceland 1942
“There Will Never Be Another You” by Art Tatum
“Someday My Prince Will Come” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
“Someday My Prince Will Come” by Miles Davis
“I Could Write A Book” from Pal Joey (1957)
“I Could Write A Book” by Miles Davis
“They Can’t Take That Away From Me” from Shall We Dance (1937)
“They Can’t Take That Away From Me” by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
“All Of You” from Silk Stockings (1957)
“All Of You” by Miles Davis
“Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise” from Deep In My Heart (1954)
“Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise” by John Coltrane
“Til There Was You” from The Music Man (1962)
“Til There Was You” by the Beatles – looking ahead to the rock unit
Ethan Iverson says that jazz musicians should study the musical theater versions of these tunes. He’s right! And so should my songwriting students.