My Funny Valentine
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"My Funny Valentine" is a jazz standard, appearing on over 1300 albums performed by over 600 artists.
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[edit] The Origin
The song first appeared in the musical theatre production of Babes in Arms, by Rodgers and Hart. Babes in Arms opened at the Shubert Theatre, in New York, on April 14, 1937 and ran for 289 performances (after transferring to the Majestic Theatre on October 25, 1937).
"My Funny Valentine" was first sung by Mitzi Green in the role of Susie Ward, the talented young sweetheart of Valentine White (played by Ray Heatherton). In 1939 a movie of Babes in Arms, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland was released. In the movie, Garland's character Patsy sings the song to Rooney's character, Mickey.
[edit] Funny Again
The song reemerges in the 1950's and is performed by most of the great jazz musicians and popular vocalists of the time including: Gerry Mulligan, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Paul Desmond, Tony Bennett, Ben Webster, Buddy Rich, Anita O'Day, Mel Tormé, among many many others.
The song made it to the top of the charts when Chet Baker released a very popular and influential version (released on the album "My Funny Valentine" / Blue Note Records). His soft, delicate and serene delivery introduced the world to Chet Baker's singing skills (he was previously known only for his trumpeting skills, also displayed on this recording). Baker is still associated more with "My Funny Valentine" than with any other of the long list of songs he recorded.
Chet's version of the song leaves out the first stanza, instead beginning with the second stanza that starts with, "My funny Valentine, sweet comic valentine". As a result of this, nearly every subsequent version of this song begins the same way. The most notable exception to this rule are songs recorded from the many performances of the musicals Babes in Arms and Pal Joey. (The first stanza is clearly a female voice speaking about her man, giving male singers an additional reason to omit it.)
The third stanza seems quite odd at first. It begins with a series of accusatory and rude questions that one wouldn't necessarily expect in a romantic tune. It quickly apologizes for the odd questions with assurances and then ends with the romantic sentiments of the last two verses.
Currently a new CD containing the song "My Funny Valentine" is released about every three days.[citation needed]
[edit] Covers of note
Since then it has entered the Great American Songbook, and has had many notable performances, including:
- (1952) Chet Baker had a hit with a recording he made of the song with Gerry Mulligan
- (1955) It was featured in the movie Gentlemen Marry Brunettes.
- (1955) Frank Sinatra included it on his album Songs for Young Lovers, and afterwards it became one of the songs most associated with his live performances.
- (1956) Ella Fitzgerald sang it on her album Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook.
- (1957) Kim Novak sang it in Pal Joey
- (1962) Bill Evans and Jim Hall recorded the song on their album Undercurrent. Unusually, they take it at a lively tempo, around 190 bpm.
- (1965) Miles Davis released a live album titled My Funny Valentine.
- (1967) Barbra Streisand chose it as the opener track for Simply Streisand
- (1976) Dolly Parton performed the song on her 1970s variety show, though she later stated that it was a bad choice, as the jazz standard was not suited to her voice or vocal stylings.
- (1979) Elvis Costello sang it on two singles and it was included in his compilation Taking Liberties the next year.
- (1985) Nico sang it on her final solo album, Camera Obscura.
- (1989) The soundtrack of the film The Fabulous Baker Boys by Dave Grusin. Performed by Michelle Pfeiffer.
- (1990) Carly Simon sang it on her album My Romance.
- (1994) Van Morrison sang it on his album A Night in San Francisco.
- (1995) The soundtrack of the film Waiting To Exhale featured a rendition by Chaka Khan.
- (1999) Matt Damon sang it in the film The Talented Mr. Ripley.
- (2004) Angela McCluskey sang My Funny Valentine in her solo album The Things We Do.
- (2005) Constantine Maroulis sang My Funny Valentine during the Broadway Musicals round on the fourth season of American Idol. The song was chosen as Maroulis' cover song for the top twelve compilation record, The Showstoppers.
- (2005) Rufus Wainwright chose it for the compilation Sweetheart.
- (2005) Over the Rhine concluded their album Drunkard's Prayer with the song.
- (2005) Kanye West sampled Ella Fitzgerald's version on his sophomore album Late Registration, song Addiciton.
- (2006) Bradley Joseph released an instrumental arrangement of My Funny Valentine on his album, Piano Love Songs.
[edit] Structure
The basic structure of the song is as follows:
- 8 bars of A
- 8 bars of A'
- 8 bars of B
- 12 bars of A
This simple and classic structure makes it easy to adapt to other genres, and for jazz musicians to improvise over the established chords.
[edit] Trivia
- Session 15 of the popular anime series Cowboy Bebop is named after the song.
- A Full House episode, "Joey's Funny Valentine", is named after this song.
- A movie was released in 2005 named "Funny Valentine"
- My Funny Valentine is featured in a Friends episode on a mixtape.
[edit] Movies featuring My Funny Valentine
- Pal Joey (1957) - performed by Kim Novak
- Handicap (1968) - Duke Ellington
- Sharky's Machine (1981) - Chet Baker
- Let's Get Lost (1988) - Biography of Chet Baker
- The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) - performed by Michelle Pfeiffer
- Malice (1993) - performed by Gene Harris
- Waiting to Exhale (1995) - performed by Chaka Khan
- The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) - performed by Matt Damon
- The Cooler (2003) - performed by Tierney Sutton
- The Company (2003) - 5 different versions performed by: Marvin Laird and Clay Ruede, Elvis Costello, Lee Wiley, Chet Baker, and Kronos Quartet.
- Ashura (2005) - performed by Sting
