“You haven’t heard ‘My Funny Valentine’ if you’ve missed this classic version with Miles on muted trumpet, backed by one of his most famous quintets...” - Jon Luthro

Rank 6 Music Richard Rodgers Lyrics Lorenz Hart   Mitzi Green introduced “My Funny Valentine” in the Broadway musical, Babes in Arms. Her character, Susie Ward, sang to Ray Heatherton whose character was (conveniently) named Valentine, “Val” White. The show opened at the Schubert Theater on April 14, 1937, and ran for 289 performances. “My Funny Valentine” subsequently went onto the recording charts in 1945, with Hal McIntyre and His Orchestra (Ruth Gaylor, vocal) taking it to number sixteen.     More on Mitzi Green     Chart information used by permission from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954   Babes in Arms was the first “true” Rodgers and Hart musical. That is to say, this is the first time that they wrote the book (dialog) as well as the music and lyrics. Their storyline was the forerunner of the “Hey kids, let’s put on a show!” formula, which provided a format for a sequence of song and dance numbers while allowing the inclusion of a thin plot and some modest character development.     More on Richard Rodgers       More on Lorenz Hart   The show is also notable for choreographer George Balanchine’s “dream ballet” sequence, one of the first of its kind. Other songs in the original Babes in Arms production included, “Babes in Arms,” “I Wish I Were in Love Again,” “Where or When,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” and “Johnny One Note.” Babes in Arms was adapted to the big screen by MGM in 1939 and was the third in a series of nine movies starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Arthur Freed produced and Busby Berkeley directed this film, which retained some of the original plot but only the songs “Babes in Arms” and “Where or When” from the score. “My Funny Valentine” has at one time or another been a specialty number for countless performers, including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Miles Davis, and Chet Baker.

More information on this tune... Will Friedwald Stardust Melodies Pantheon; 1st edition Hardcover: 416 pages (This book contains 25 pages on the song--its history, analyses of the music and lyric, performers, recordings, and information on the songwriters. “My Funny Valentine” is one of twelve thoroughly documented songs in the book.) See the Reading and Research page for this tune for additional references. - Jeremy Wilson

This section suggests definitive or otherwise significant recordings that will help jazz students get acquainted with “My Funny Valentine.” These recordings have been selected from the Jazz History and CD Recommendations sections.

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Chet Baker and Miles Davis are the two trumpet players most closely associated with the cool jazz movement, though for Davis that is but one of the many subgenres in which he was a major influence. Both of these artists recorded “My Funny Valentine” on numerous occasions with moving and influential results. Baker recorded the tune several times instrumentally, but it is his first vocal version (My Funny Valentine) that proved to be a landmark moment both for him and for the song. Davis, meanwhile, first recorded the song with his classic group of the 1950s (Cookin’ With the Miles Davis Quintet), a performance that stands out as one of his most significant ballad performances. His 1964 Carnegie Hall performance (My Funny Valentine) was also noteworthy, helping to signal the new sound of his groundbreaking 1960s unit.

Noah Baerman - Jazz Pianist and Educator

In 1927 Lorenz Hart took the novel approach of combining antiquated words with contemporary colloquialisms in “Thou Swell” from A Connecticut Yankee (1927), resulting in lines such as “I choose a sweet lollapalooza in thee.” In “My Funny Valentine” the rarely-sung verse repeats his previous approach with “thou’s” and “thy’s” and “doth” and “hast”; for example, “Thou knowest not my dim witted friend.” But the refrain does not include any archaic words or colloquialisms, with the exception of “my favorite work of art”.

Richard Rodgers’ refrain has a descending bass line, which William Zinsser (Easy to Remember: The Great American Songwriters and Their Songs) says, “is the foundation that holds up the whole song.” Its engaging melody is basically the repetition of a six-note phrase in the first four bars followed by variations on that theme. -JW

Musical analysis of “My Funny Valentine”
Original Key	C minor, with a shift to relative major in “B”section
Form	A – B – C – D with a four-measure tag, although “B”,“C,” and the tag share much of the same melodic material with “A”
Tonality	70% minor, 30% major (during the bridge and the tag)
Movement	Ascending scale-wise, then falling a bit before starting upward again and then soaring by leaps into the upper range; overall melody line is a climbing one, reaching a climax at the end just before the tag.
Comments     (assumed background)
This is a very nicely constructed melody that rises tentatively, then falls repeatedly, only to rise a bit higher each time. The harmonic progression of the “A” section is led by a chromatically descending bass line that changes each chord (somewhat reminiscent of “In A Sentimental Mood” and “Blue Skies”). In the original key, it looks like this: Cm – G7/B –Eb/Bb – Am7(b5) – Ab – Eb/G – Fm – Eb – Dm7(b5). From the last chord, it is an easy return to C minor. On “B” the Fm becomes an Fm7(b5), facilitating movement to the relative major key. The bridge at “C” uses the I – vi – ii7 – V7 progression of “Heart and Soul” and “Blue Moon” until modulating back to the minor key using the viim7(b5)– V7/i sequence.
K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com

Although Chet Baker’s vocal version is one of the best known renditions of this tune, Chet’s version with Gerry Mulligan, from 1952 is one of his first recording sessions and is a haunting version of the tune, no doubt helped along by the acoustics of the empty San Francisco Blackhawk nightclub. Baker’s approach on this track is strangely reminiscent of Clifford Brown.

Yet another version by Baker/Mulligan, a live date from 1953 (complete with clinking glasses, no less), is two minutes longer than the ’52 version and features Baker in a more expansive and looser mode.

Chris Tyle - Jazz Musician and Historian

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Gerry Mulligan Gerry Mulligan Quartet featuring Chet Baker Original Jazz Classics 711 Gerry Mulligan The Original Quartet With Chet Baker [2-CD SET] Blue Note Records Original recording 1953

“My Funny Valentine” was included in these films:

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• Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955, Jeanne Crain, dubbed by Anita Ellis)
• Pal Joey (1956, Kim Novak)
• Waiting to Exhale (1995, Chaka Khan)
• The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999, Matt Damon)
• The Company (2003, appearing four times: by Elvis Costello, Chet Baker, the Kronos Quartet, and the piano/cello duet of Marvin Laird and Clay Ruede)

And on the small screen:

• Cold Feet (1997-2003, British TV series which aired in the United States on the Bravo network, Chet Baker)

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