“Vibraphonist Stefon Harris delivers an exciting rendition ... the song was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.” - Ben Maycock

AKA There's No Greater Love AKA No Greater Love Rank 52 Music Isham Jones Lyrics Marty Symes   In 1936 Isham Jones and His Orchestra introduced “There Is No Greater Love” as the B-side to their recording “Life Begins When You’re in Love” from the film, The Music Goes ‘Round. Both sides featured Woody Herman vocals and were modest hits, appearing on the pop charts in April of 1936 for one week and rising to number 20.     More on Isham Jones     Chart information used by permission from Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954   Beginning in 1920, Isham Jones and His Orchestra had produced over seventy hit songs, including eight number one recordings, many of which Jones composed. “There Is No Greater Love” was their last hit before the bandleader changed the band’s name to Isham Jones’ Juniors that same year. Within months of the name change, Jones decided to take time off for composing, turning over the band’s leadership to saxophonist, clarinetist, and vocalist Woody Herman. This would be the beginning of Herman’s career as a bandleader, one that would last for the next fifty years. Jones subsequently returned to band leading but recorded only two more hit songs. “There Is No Greater Love” would also be the last of several major hits for lyricist Marty Symes.     More on Woody Herman       More on Marty Symes

More information on this tune... George T. Simon Big Bands Songbook Barnes & Noble Paperback (Simon devotes four pages to anecdotes, the artists who have performed the song, and biographical notes on the songwriter. He also includes the sheet music.) - Jeremy Wilson

This section suggests definitive or otherwise significant recordings that will help jazz students get acquainted with “There Is No Greater Love.” These recordings have been selected from the Jazz History and CD Recommendations sections.

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“There Is No Greater Love” has a storied history as a ballad, and Dinah Washington’s 1954 recording (Dinah Jams) is a classic example of this. These days, though, the tune is more often played at medium to bright tempos and with a swing feeling. The most influential recordings in this style are by Miles Davis with two of his influential quintets. His 1955 version (The New Miles Davis Quintet) is relaxed and amazingly swinging. His 1964 version (Four & More) also swings hard, but is even more noteworthy for the rhythmic quirks that foreshadow that band’s subsequent innovations.

Noah Baerman - Jazz Pianist and Educator

“There Is No Greater Love” was written in the popular 32-bar, A-A-B-A form and is not difficult for vocalists as it requires only an octave and a half range. Jazz vocalist recordings have generally been by females, including Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dinah Washington, and Sarah Vaughan. One exception is Jimmy Scott on Falling in Love Is Wonderful, originally released in 1963 and re-released on CD in 2003.

Marty Symes’ lyrics are straightforward and romantic, simply declaring the strength of one’s affection in the first and last A sections, “There is no greater love … than what I feel for you” and then describing the thrill and appreciation of love in the second A section and the bridge.

Symes further chooses a simple rhyming scheme and an economical vocabulary. He end-rhymes the second and fourth bar of every section, the eight rhymed words picked from a pool of just five words:

A – you and true
A – me and me
B – known and alone
A – true and you

-JW

Musical analysis of “There Is No Greater Love”
Original Key	Bb major; false key change to G minor during the bridge
Form	A1 – A2 – B – A2
Tonality	“A” sections are major; “B” is minor.
Movement	“A” consists of descending steps, followed by a downward fourth, which are answered by two upward leaps of a fifth. “B” moves primarily upward; the melody outlines the harmony of the moment.
Comments     (assumed background)
This is a highly motivic tune, tightly structured and showing the composer to have had some classical training. The motif of three descending seconds (steps) followed by a downward fourth occurs twice in “A” and once in “B.” The motif used in the consequent phrase of “A” consists of an upward fifth and two steps downward, repeated twice, with the second repetition beginning where the first one ended. It is a good example of given “licks” played in different keys over different changes. Harmonically the “A” sections are more interesting than the “B,” which simply goes back and forth between V7and i. “A” starts out as if it were to be a blues, I – IV7. Instead of returning to I, however, the IV chord is followed by a III7, leading into the cycle of fifths that returns to the tonic (delayed during the first “A”). Some performers play a bVII(#11) chord instead of the III7, adding some exotic color to the harmonic progression (in the original key, Bb – Eb7 – Ab7(#11) – G7).
K. J. McElrath - Musicologist for JazzStandards.com

Duke Ellington’s 1935 version of this tune, although historically the first jazz version, is basically a standard dance orchestra rendition except for a fine alto saxophone solo by Johnny Hodges.

During the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s the tune was most frequently recorded as a ballad, but it underwent a change to a medium-to-up tempo swinger following a 1958 session under the leadership of West Coast bop trombonist Frank Rosolino. This recording also features the wonderful playing of tenor saxophonist Harold Land and a nonpareil rhythm section of pianist Victor Feldman, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Stan Levey.

Chris Tyle - Jazz Musician and Historian

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Duke Ellington 1935-1936 Classics 659 Frank Rosolino Free for All Original Jazz Classics 1763

“There Is No Greater Love” was included in these films:

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• The Music Goes ‘Round (1936, Isham Jones and His Orchestra)

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