Frederick Loewe, music · Alan Jay Lerner, lyrics · Introduced by David Brooks and Marion Bell in Brigadoon
Almost Like Being in Love
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner wrote it for Brigadoon, their Broadway musical of 1947. It runs 36 , with a contrasting middle part and a last stretch four bars longer than the first. Nat King Cole, Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Sonny Rollins and Red Garland all recorded it in the 1950s.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Nat King Cole singing the tune in 1953, then goes back a year to Charlie Parker with a big band and Lester Young with a piano trio. It continues with a quartet that has no piano and Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, and ends with Red Garland's trio, Chet Baker's septet and Harold Mabern's live quartet from 2018.
Cole recorded it at Capitol in Hollywood in sessions on January 27 and 28, 1953, with Nelson Riddle arranging and conducting. It came out that year on the 10-inch LP Nat King Cole Sings for Two in Love.
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Listen for
Cole sings with an arrangement by Nelson Riddle behind him. At 1:53 it is the shortest record on the path, so it is a quick way to learn how the tune goes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the chart's first eight slowly and hum the tune over them: , , , , , E♭7, , . Smaller version: play only the first of each bar.
Charlie Parker with the Joe Lippman Orchestra · 1952 · Bebop
Charlie Parker Big Band
Parker recorded it in New York on March 25, 1952, in a session with Joe Lippman's orchestra that also produced three other titles. Mercury issued it as a single, number 11102, and it appeared on the 1954 LP Charlie Parker Big Band.
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Listen for
The record is credited to Charlie Parker with Joe Lippman's orchestra, so listen for his alto saxophone against the band's trumpets, trombones and saxophones. It runs 2:34.
Try it on your instrument
Play the middle part, 17 to 24, one to a bar: , , , Fmaj7, , , Gm7, C7. Smaller version: play only bars 17 to 20.
Young recorded it with Oscar Peterson's trio in New York on November 28, 1952. It came out first as a single, Mercury 89027, in 1953, and Norgran collected it on The President Plays with the Oscar Peterson Trio in 1956.
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Lester Young plays tenor saxophone, with Oscar Peterson's piano, Barney Kessel's guitar, Ray Brown's bass and J.C. Heard's drums behind him. The record runs 3:31.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last stretch, 25 to 36, one to a bar except where two are written: , , , , , , , B°7, B♭m7, E♭7, , . Smaller version: play only bars 25 to 28.
Lee Konitz with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet · 1953 · Cool jazz, Bebop
Lee Konitz and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet
Konitz joined Gerry Mulligan's quartet, with Chet Baker on trumpet, for a Los Angeles session on January 30, 1953. Pacific Jazz issued this track in 1954 on Lee Konitz and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.
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Chet Baker's trumpet, Lee Konitz's alto saxophone and Gerry Mulligan's baritone saxophone play with only Carson Smith's bass and Larry Bunker's drums behind them. Nothing else plays the under the horns. The record runs 2:59.
Try it on your instrument
Play only the root note of each in 1 to 7 (D♭, E♭, A♭, C, then B♭, E♭, A♭) and hum the tune above them. Smaller version: play bars 1 to 4 only.
Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet · 1953 · Bebop
Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet
Rollins recorded it with the Modern Jazz Quartet in New York on October 7, 1953. Prestige first issued it on a 1954 EP and then on the 1956 LP Sonny Rollins with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Art Blakey and Kenny Drew.
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Sonny Rollins's tenor saxophone plays alongside Milt Jackson's vibraphone and John Lewis's piano, with Percy Heath on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. The record runs 3:23.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of 1 to 4 (, , , then ) as broken chords, one note at a time, slowly. Smaller version: play only the root and third of each chord.
Red Garland recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on March 22, 1957, with Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. Prestige issued it that year on Red Garland's Piano.
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Red Garland's piano leads, with Paul Chambers on bass and Art Taylor on drums. At 4:50 it runs more than twice as long as Nat King Cole's record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the two endings of the first section: 7 and 8 are then , and on the repeat bars 15 and 16 are A♭6 then A♭6. Smaller version: play just A♭6 and E♭m7 A♭7, then A♭6 twice.
Baker recorded it at Reeves Sound Studios in New York City on July 21 and 22, 1959, for the album Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe. Riverside released the album that year.
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Chet Baker plays trumpet in front of Herbie Mann and Zoot Sims on saxophones and Pepper Adams on baritone saxophone, with Bob Corwin on piano. The record runs 4:53.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole chart once at a slow tempo, one to a bar (the first chord when a bar holds two), and hum the tune. Smaller version: play only bars 1 to 8.
Harold Mabern recorded it live at the New York club Smoke on January 7, 2018, the last night of a three-week engagement, with Eric Alexander on tenor saxophone, John Webber on bass and Joe Farnsworth on drums. Smoke Sessions Records released it on The Iron Man: Live at Smoke.
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Harold Mabern's piano, Eric Alexander's tenor saxophone, John Webber's bass and Joe Farnsworth's drums play it in front of an audience at Smoke. At 8:48 it is the longest record on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the chart through twice in a row, counting 36 each time, one to a bar. Smaller version: play bars 1 to 8 twice.
Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner write it for Brigadoon, which opens on Broadway in March 1947. David Brooks and Marion Bell sing it in the show and on the cast album, and Frank Sinatra releases it on Columbia.
1950s
Charlie Parker plays it with a big band in 1952. Lester Young records it with a piano trio that year, and Red Garland's trio plays it in 1957.
1960s
Erroll Garner's trio plays it live at Purdue University in March 1962, and Ella Fitzgerald records it for Verve that October with arrangements by Marty Paich.
2010s
Harold Mabern's quartet plays it live at Smoke in New York in January 2018, and the track runs 8:48 on The Iron Man: Live at Smoke.
More great versions
6 more, from 1947 to 1962. Tap a cover to play it here.
1940sDavid Brooks and Marion Bell1947 · Stage & screen
David Brooks and Marion Bell, who first sang it in the Broadway production, recorded it for the 1947 original cast album on RCA Victor, with Franz Allers conducting.
Sinatra's Columbia record, arranged and conducted by Axel Stordahl, came out as a single in June 1947. According to Wikipedia, it reached number 20 in the United States that year.
Hank Jones recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on November 1, 1955, with Donald Byrd on trumpet. Savoy issued it in 1956 on Hank Jones Quartet-Quintet.
Blakey's Jazz Messengers recorded it at Webster Hall in New York on March 13, 1957, with Johnny Griffin on tenor saxophone. Vik issued it that year on a Lerner and Loewe album, and Bluebird reissued it as 1957 Second Edition.
Fitzgerald recorded it with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Marty Paich at Capitol Studios in Hollywood, in sessions from October 1 to 4, 1962. Verve released it in 1963 on Ella Sings Broadway.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
A♭ majorusual key
36 barsA · A · B · A form
A♭ major → F major → A♭ majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A12 bars
A♭
F
A♭
The tune is 36 in the order A, A, B, A, and the last A runs 12 bars instead of 8. Bars 1 to 8 play , , , , , E♭7, and . The section repeats in bars 9 to 16 with a different ending, because bars 15 and 16 stay on A♭6. The , bars 17 to 24, plays , , , Fmaj7, , , Gm7 and C7, so it leaves for . The last section, bars 25 to 36, starts like the first, then plays B♭m7, , , B°7, B♭m7, E♭7, A♭6 and E♭m7 A♭7. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some differently, and the areas are approximate.