Jimmy McHugh, music · Dorothy Fields, lyrics · Introduced by Adelaide Hall in Lew Leslie's Blackbird Revue, New York, 1928
I Can't Give You Anything but Love
Jimmy McHugh wrote the music and Dorothy Fields the words for this song in 1928. According to Wikipedia, it ranks 24th among the 100 most recorded songs from 1890 to 1954. Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Ella Fitzgerald and Red Garland all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path opens with Adelaide Hall, who sang the song first on stage, and then follows it through Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. It continues with Gene Ammons on tenor saxophone, Lester Young with Oscar Peterson's trio, Ella Fitzgerald live and Red Garland's piano trio, and it ends with an 11-minute live version from 1993.
1920sLouis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five1929 · Vocal
1930sBillie Holiday with Teddy Wilson1936
Adelaide Hall with Fats Waller1938
1940s
1950sGene Ammons Quartet1950
Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio1952 · Swing
Ella Fitzgerald1956 · Swing
The Red Garland Trio1957 · Post-bop
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990sThe Dave Brubeck Quartet1993
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Hear the singer who introduced it
Adelaide Hall with Fats Waller · 1938
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love”, I Can't Give You Anything but Love / That Old Feeling
Adelaide Hall introduced the song at Les Ambassadeurs Club in New York in January 1928, in Lew Leslie's Blackbird Revue, which became Blackbirds of 1928 on Broadway. She recorded it at Abbey Road Studios in London on 28 August 1938, with Fats Waller accompanying her on organ.
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Hall sings with Fats Waller on organ instead of a full band. The record lasts 3:15.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the with only: , , , C7. Hum the melody over them. Smaller version: play only Fmaj7, Gm7 and C7, one chord per bar.
Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five · 1929 · Vocal
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love”, I Can't Give You Anything But Love / No One Else But You
Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five recorded the song in New York on March 5, 1929, and OKeh issued it on 8669. Armstrong sings and plays trumpet, with Lonnie Johnson on guitar and J.C. Higginbotham on trombone.
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Armstrong both sings and plays trumpet, with banjo and guitar in the . The record lasts 3:22.
Try it on your instrument
Hum the melody and clap through the 32 as four sections of 8 bars (A, B, A, C). Raise a hand at bars 1, 9, 17 and 25. Smaller version: count four beats per bar to 8 and start again.
Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra · 1936
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love”, Sailin' / I Can't Give You Anything But Love
Billie Holiday recorded it with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra in New York on November 19, 1936, and Brunswick issued it on 7781. According to Classic Jazz Standards, it entered the charts on December 19, 1936, stayed four weeks and reached number five.
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Holiday sings, and the band around her has Ben Webster on tenor saxophone, Jonah Jones on trumpet, Benny Goodman on clarinet and Teddy Wilson on piano. The record lasts 3:27.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 9 to 16: , , , B♭maj7, , G7, , . Hum the melody over it. Smaller version: play only Cm7, F7 and B♭maj7, then return to the .
Gene Ammons recorded it in New York on June 28, 1950, with Duke Jordan on piano, and Prestige issued it on 731. It later came out again on Prestige 845, paired with Bye Bye, in 1953.
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Ammons plays tenor saxophone over piano, bass and drums. At 2:38 this is the shortest record on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 25 to 32, which closes the tune: , , , , , , D7, Gm7 C7. Smaller version: play only the last four bars, Gm7, C7, F6 D7, Gm7 C7.
Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio · 1952 · Swing
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love”, The President
Lester Young recorded it in New York on August 4, 1952, with Oscar Peterson's trio and drummer J.C. Heard. Norgran issued it on the 1954 album The President.
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Young plays tenor saxophone, with Oscar Peterson on piano and Barney Kessel on guitar behind him. The record lasts 3:20.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole tune as a loop, one chord per , taking the first chord where two are written, in the order A, B, A, C from the form text. Smaller version: loop only the , , , , , Fmaj7, Am7, Gm7, C7.
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Live at Zardi's, 1956)”, Ella at Zardi's
Ella Fitzgerald sang it at Zardi's Jazzland in Hollywood on February 2, 1956, with a trio of Don Abney, Vernon Alley and Frank Capp. The tape stayed in the Verve vault for more than 60 years and came out on December 1, 2017.
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Ella sings in front of a club audience, with piano, bass and drums behind her. The track lasts 4:19.
Try it on your instrument
Hum the melody over the recording's first , then play the alone for the same 32 , one chord per bar. Smaller version: do only the first 8 bars ( , , , C7, and the same again).
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love”, Red Garland's Piano
Red Garland recorded it with Paul Chambers and Art Taylor at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on March 22, 1957. Prestige released it on the album Red Garland's Piano that June.
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Garland leads on piano, with Chambers on bass and Taylor on drums. At 5:02 it is the longest record in the path so far.
Try it on your instrument
Play the with your left hand and the melody with your right. Soloing over like Garland takes much more practice, so a smaller version is to play the melody over the first 8 and stop.
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Live At The Blue Note, NYC / October 5-10, 1993)”, NightShift
Dave Brubeck's group recorded it live at the Blue Note in New York during a run of shows from October 5 to 10, 1993. Telarc released it on the album NightShift in 1995.
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The track runs 10:59, much longer than anything earlier in the path. The group has piano, bass and drums plus clarinet, saxophones, flute and bass trombone.
Try it on your instrument
Playing a solo over the whole tune is advanced, so start smaller: loop the last four , , , , Gm7 C7, and hum the melody notes you know over them. Then add the first four bars of the .
Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields write the song for Lew Leslie's Blackbird Revue, which opens in New York in January 1928 and reaches Broadway that May as Blackbirds of 1928. Louis Armstrong records it in March 1929.
1930s
Billie Holiday records it in November 1936. Adelaide Hall, who sang it first on stage, records it in London in August 1938 with Fats Waller on organ.
1940s
Benny Goodman's sextet records it for Columbia in December 1940, with Charlie Christian on guitar and Cootie Williams on trumpet.
1950s
Gene Ammons records it for Prestige in 1950. Ella Fitzgerald sings it live at Zardi's Jazzland in Hollywood in 1956, and Red Garland records it as a piano trio in 1957.
1990s
Dave Brubeck's sextet plays an 11-minute version live at the Blue Note in New York in October 1993. Diana Krall records it in 1998 for her album When I Look in Your Eyes.
2010s
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga sing it as a duet on their album Cheek to Cheek. It comes out as the album's second single in August 2014.
More great versions
6 more, from 1932 to 2014. Tap a cover to play it here.
1930sEthel Waters with Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra1932
1940sBenny Goodman Sextet1940 · Swing
1950sOscar Peterson Trio1953
Sonny Clark Trio1958 · Hard bop
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990sDiana Krall1998 · Contemporary jazz
2000s
2010sTony Bennett and Lady Gaga2014 · Swing
Ethel Waters with Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra
1932
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love”, I Can't Give You Anything But Love / Doin' the New Lowdown
Ethel Waters sang it with Duke Ellington's orchestra on December 22, 1932, and Brunswick issued it on 6517.
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love”, Blues in the Night
Sonny Clark's trio recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on November 16, 1958. Blue Note first issued it on the album Blues in the Night in 1979.
“I Can't Give You Anything But Love”, Cheek to Cheek
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga recorded it for their album Cheek to Cheek. It came out as the album's second single on August 19, 2014, and the album followed on September 19.
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
F majorusual key
32 barsA · B · A · C form
F major → B♭ major → F major → B♭ major → F majorkey centers
A8 bars
B8 bars
A8 bars
C8 bars
F
B♭
F
B♭
F
The tune stays close to . The , 1 to 8, is , , , C7, then the same four bars again. The , bars 9 to 16, is , , , B♭maj7, , G7, Gm7, C7. The A section returns in bars 17 to 24 with the same first four bars, then Cm7, F7, B♭maj7, B♭maj7, which repeats the start of the B section. The closes the tune in bars 25 to 32: B♭maj7, , Fmaj7, , Gm7, C7, D7, Gm7 C7. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may divide the 32 bars differently.