My Funny Valentine

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"My Funny Valentine" is a jazz standard, appearing on over 1300 albums performed by over 600 artists.

Contents

[edit] Origin

The song was composed by Richard Rodgers to lyrics by Lorenz Hart and first appeared in the musical comedy Babes in Arms which opened at the Shubert Theatre, New York, on April 14, 1937 and ran for 289 performances, 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 film of Babes in Arms, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, was released. In it, Garland's character, Patsy, sings the song to Rooney's character, Mickey.

[edit] Funny Again

The song reemerged in the 1950s and was performed by most of the great jazz musicians and popular vocalists of the time including: Gerry Mulligan, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Linda Ronstadt, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz, Paul Desmond, Tony Bennett, Ben Webster, Buddy Rich, Anita O'Day, Mel Tormé, Rickie Lee Jones and 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.

[edit] Covers of note

Since then it has entered the Great American Songbook, and has had many notable performances, including:

[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

  • The 30 Rock episode Black Tie (30 Rock episode) which aired February 2nd, 2007 features the song "My Funny Valentine" in the scene towards the end, when Gerhardt Hapsburg commits suicide.
  • 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
  • The song is featured in the pilot of the series John Doe, played on piano by the main character.
  • "My Funny Valentine" is featured in a Friends episode on a mixtape.
  • Late R&B singer Aaliyah sang the song in the contest Star Search.
  • Herman's Head used the song My Funny Valentine

Episode Number: 43 Season Num: 2 First Aired: Sunday February 14, 1993 Prod Code: n/a

[edit] Movies featuring My Funny Valentine

[edit] External links

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