Jule Styne, music · Sammy Cahn, lyrics · Sung by Frank Sinatra in the film Anchors Aweigh (1945)
I Fall in Love Too Easily
Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote it for the film Anchors Aweigh, where Frank Sinatra sang it. It runs only sixteen , and Miles Davis kept it in his quintets' repertoire through the 1960s. Hear it from Sinatra, Chet Baker, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett and Shirley Horn.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Frank Sinatra's 1944 record and Chet Baker's 1954 version, then moves through a seven-piece band, a piano trio and two Miles Davis quintets. It ends with Keith Jarrett's trio and a vocal tribute to Miles by Shirley Horn.
1980sKeith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette1983 · Post-bop
1990sShirley Horn1997 · Vocal
Progress can't be saved in this browser.
Step 1 of 8 Now playing✓ Heard
Learn the song
Frank Sinatra with Axel Stordahl · 1944
The Columbia Years
Frank Sinatra sang the song in the 1945 film Anchors Aweigh. He recorded it for Columbia in New York on December 1, 1944, with Axel Stordahl arranging and conducting.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Sinatra sings with Axel Stordahl's orchestra, which has strings, a harp, saxophones and a small rhythm group. The whole song is over in 3:13.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first two as , two to a bar: , . A smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar, then E♭, and hum the tune over it.
Chet Baker recorded this version in Los Angeles on February 15, 1954, with a piano, bass and drums trio. He had first cut the song in October 1953 for a single, and this take went on the album Chet Baker Sings.
E♭ major · 4/4 · swing · 65 bpm (slow)
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Baker sings, and the credits list him on trumpet too, with Russ Freeman on piano. The track runs 3:20.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four as : , , , . A smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar, , E♭, D and C.
“I Fall In Love Too Easily”, Seven Steps to Heaven
Miles Davis recorded this version in Los Angeles on April 16, 1963, with Victor Feldman on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Frank Butler on drums. It went on Seven Steps to Heaven and stayed in his quintet's repertoire through the 1960s.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Davis plays muted trumpet; JazzStandards.com says he uses a Harmon mute here. The track runs 6:43, about twice as long as the Sinatra and Baker tracks.
Try it on your instrument
Play 9 to 12 as : D7alt, , , C7♭9. This moves fast and takes practice. A smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar, A, G, G and F.
“I Fall In Love Too Easily (Live at the Plugged Nickel, 1st set, December 22, 1965)”, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel
The Miles Davis Quintet played the song in the first set at the Plugged Nickel in Chicago on December 22, 1965. It first came out in a Japanese box set in 1992 and again in the 1995 complete edition.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
This is the song again, played live by a different quintet from the 1963 one, with Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone and Herbie Hancock on piano. The track runs 11:44.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole 16 as once, then play only the first chord of each bar and hum the tune over it. Improvising over the chords, as the quintet does, takes much more practice.
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette · 1983 · Post-bop
“I Fall In Love Too Easily”, Standards, Vol. 2
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette recorded this at the Power Station in New York in January 1983. ECM issued it in 1985 on Standards, Vol. 2.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Jarrett's trio takes the song for 5:14, with Gary Peacock on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums.
Try it on your instrument
Play 7 and 8 as : , . A smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar, A and D.
Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn write the song for the film Anchors Aweigh, where Frank Sinatra sings it. He records it for Columbia in New York on December 1, 1944, with Axel Stordahl arranging and conducting.
1950s
Chet Baker records it as a vocal single in October 1953 and again in 1954 for Chet Baker Sings. Tony Bennett sings it on Cloud 7, recorded in 1954 and released by Columbia in 1955.
1960s
Benny Golson records it with a seven-piece band in December 1960, and Bill Evans's trio follows in 1962. Miles Davis records it in 1963 and plays it live in Chicago in December 1965.
1980s
Tommy Flanagan's trio records it in 1981 and Keith Jarrett's trio in January 1983. Chet Baker plays it with the Radio Symphony Hannover at a concert in Hanover on April 28, 1988.
1990s
Shirley Horn records it in December 1997 for I Remember Miles, a tribute album to Miles Davis that Verve releases in 1998.
2020s
Pat Metheny plays it alone on Dream Box, an album of solo tracks recorded in 2021 and 2022 and released in 2023.
More great versions
6 more, from 1953 to 2023. Tap a cover to play it here.
“I Fall In Love Too Easily”, I Fall In Love Too Easily / Winter Wonderland
Chet Baker first recorded the song in Los Angeles on October 27, 1953. Pacific Jazz issued it in 1954 on a single with Winter Wonderland on the other side.
Tony Bennett sings it on Cloud 7, an album billed as Tony Bennett featuring Chuck Wayne. It was recorded in two sessions in 1954 and released by Columbia in February 1955.
“I Fall In Love Too Easily (Live at the Plugged Nickel, 1st set, December 23, 1965)”, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel
The same Miles Davis Quintet played the song again in the first set at the Plugged Nickel on December 23, 1965, one day after the performance on the path.
“I Fall In Love Too Easily”, The Magnificent Tommy Flanagan
Tommy Flanagan recorded it in New York on June 2, 1981, with George Mraz on bass and Al Foster on drums, for the Progressive album The Magnificent Tommy Flanagan.
Chet Baker played the song with the Radio Symphony Hannover at the Funkhaus in Hanover on April 28, 1988. Enja issued it on My Favourite Songs: The Last Great Concert.
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
E♭ majorusual key
16 barsA form
E♭ major → C minor → F minor → E♭ majorkey centers
A16 bars
E♭
C m
F m
E♭
The iReal Pro chart runs 16 in as a single section, with no repeated section and no middle part. It opens with and , then moves to with and in bars 3 and 4. Bars 5 to 10 stay around C minor: Dm7♭5 G7♯9, , , Dm7♭5 , Am7♭5 D7alt and G7♭9. Bars 11 and 12 turn to with and Fm7 C7♭9. The last four bars are Fm7 , G7alt C7♭9, Fm7 B♭7 and C7♭9, which bring the back to E♭.