My Funny Valentine


"My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical Babes in Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. The song became a popular jazz standard, appearing on over 1300 albums performed by over 600 artists. One of them was Chet Baker, for whom it became his signature song. In 2015, it was announced that the Gerry Mulligan quartet featuring Chet Baker's version of the song was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for the song's "cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy". Mulligan also recorded the song with his Concert Jazz Band in 1960.

Structure

The song is usually performed in C minor, although for vocalists the key of B minor is fairly common. Frank Sinatra recorded the song in B minor, and the theatrical version was also in B minor. Ella Fitzgerald recorded the song in G minor.
The song follows the following chord progression :
The second A section follows a similar progression, but the last two bars are replaced with a minor ii-V in Eb heading into the bridge.
The bridge is in the relative major and speeds up the harmonic progression to 2 chords per measure:
Ebmaj7 Fm7Gm7 Fm7Ebmaj7 Fm7Gm7 Fm7
Ebmaj7 G7Cm7 Bbm7 A7Abmaj7D⌀7 G7

The last A section is extended by 4 bars:
CmCmCm7Cm6
Abmaj7D⌀7 G7Cm7Bbm7 A7
Abmaj7Fm7 Bb7Eb6D⌀7 G7

This simple and classic structure makes it easy to adapt to other genres and for jazz musicians to improvise over the established chords.

History

Babes in Arms opened at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway, in New York City on April 14, 1937 and ran for 289 performances. In the original play, a character named Billie Smith sings the song to Valentine "Val" LaMar. In the song, Billie pokes fun at some of Valentine's characteristics, but ultimately affirms that he makes her smile and that she doesn't want him to change.
The song first hit the charts in 1945, performed by Hal McIntyre with vocals by Ruth Gaylor. It only appeared for one week and hit No. 16.
Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1956 for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in the box set The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings issued by Mosaic Records in 2009.
Elvis Costello recorded a cover version in 1978. It came out in 1979 as the B-side of the single Oliver's Army and was later included in multiple compilation albums.
Michael Buble recorded the song for his 2018 album Love.

In popular culture