Duke Ellington, music · Irving Mills, Henry Nemo and John Redmond, lyrics · Written for a 1938 Cotton Club show
I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart
Ellington wrote it in 1938 for a Cotton Club show, and Mills, Nemo and Redmond added words. Ellington's own 1938 record reached number one and stayed on the charts for 19 weeks. Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett all recorded it.
Listen in this order
Start with Ellington's 1938 record, then hear the song as a two-horn session with Gillespie and Getz, a Monk trio, a long organ jam, a piano trio, a Tony Bennett vocal, a guitar trio and a saxophone with a big band. Each step puts the same 32 in a new setting.
Zoot Sims with the Benny Carter Orchestra1979 · Big band
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Hear the original
Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra · 1938
Brunswick 78 rpm single, backed with The Gal from Joe's
Ellington recorded the song as an instrumental for Brunswick in New York on March 3, 1938. The record entered the charts on March 26 and reached number one.
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Listen for
The full band plays the song by itself. The take lasts just over three minutes, the length of a 78 rpm side.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of an from the iReal Pro chart slowly: and , and , then and twice. Those four bars open every A section.
Gillespie and Getz recorded it in Los Angeles on December 9, 1953. According to JazzStandards.com, it came from Gillespie's first session for Norman Granz's Norgran label.
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Listen for
A trumpet and a tenor saxophone share the , with piano, guitar, bass and drums behind them. At 6:19 the take runs about twice as long as Ellington's record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody once through at a medium swing, then repeat it with small changes to the rhythm. To go further, improvise a using only notes from the in each ; if that is new to you, stay with the melody.
Monk recorded it at Van Gelder's studio in July 1955, on an album of Ellington songs with bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Kenny Clarke. According to JazzStandards.com, Monk readily acknowledged Ellington as an influence.
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Listen for
Monk leads a trio of piano, bass and drums. At 5:40 the piano has plenty of time with the tune.
Try it on your instrument
Play the twice on a piano or keyboard: once with the melody in your right hand, once with the only. Notice which version leaves more space.
Smith recorded it with a sextet at Manhattan Towers in New York on February 11, 1957. Blue Note issued it on A Date with Jimmy Smith, Volume Two.
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Listen for
An organ leads a band with trumpet, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, guitar and drums. At 17 minutes the take runs more than five times as long as the 1938 record.
Try it on your instrument
Loop the 32 from the iReal Pro chart and count each time around. If you can solo over the , take one lap; if not, play the melody on every lap and change only the rhythm.
Joe Pass recorded it in Los Angeles on June 21, 1974, with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Bobby Durham. Norman Granz produced the album for his Pablo label.
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Listen for
The guitar leads, with bass and drums behind it. At 5:36 there is time to follow the guitar all the way through.
Try it on your instrument
Bar 5 of each is the tricky one: , , , . Play those four alone until they change cleanly, then play 4 to 6 together.
Zoot Sims with the Benny Carter Orchestra · 1979 · Big band
Passion Flower: Zoot Sims Plays Duke Ellington
Sims recorded it in Los Angeles on August 14, 1979, with a studio orchestra and arrangements by Benny Carter. Pablo issued it on Passion Flower in 1980.
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Listen for
A tenor saxophone leads in front of a studio orchestra, with Benny Carter writing the arrangement. At 3:00 the take is almost the length of Ellington's 1938 record, so you can compare the two.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first along with the recording, melody or , and stop where it gets hard. Start from that next time.
Ellington wrote the song for a 1938 Cotton Club show. His instrumental record for Brunswick that March reached number one, and Benny Goodman with singer Martha Tilton also topped the charts.
1950s
Thelonious Monk recorded it as a piano trio in 1955, and Jimmy Smith's 1957 organ version runs about 17 minutes. Ella Fitzgerald sang it with Ellington's orchestra.
1960s
The Three Sounds cut it as a piano trio in 1960, and Tony Bennett sang it with a band in 1967, finishing in under two minutes.
1970s
Joe Pass played it as a guitar trio in 1974, and Zoot Sims played it with a studio orchestra in 1979.
1980s
Pianist Ray Bryant recorded it with bass and drums in New York in 1987.
More great versions
5 more, from 1954 to 1978. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sDinah Washington1954 · Vocal
Rosemary Clooney and Duke Ellington1956 · Big band
Clooney's Blue Rose paired her with Ellington's orchestra. The band recorded in New York in January 1956, and she added her vocals in Los Angeles that February.
“I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart / Don't Get Around Much Anymore”, Everybody Knows
Hodges, who played alto saxophone in Ellington's band on the 1938 record, plays the song in a medley with Don't Get Around Much Anymore on Everybody Knows.
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
32 barsA · A · B · A form
E♭ major → G♭ major → E♭ majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
E♭
G♭
E♭
Each runs eight in . Bars 1 and 2 move between and , then and , and bars 3 and 4 each repeat and . Bar 5 steps through , Gm7, and , and bar 6 returns to and A♭7. The first A ends with E♭maj7 and Cm7, then Fm7 and , which lead back to the top. The second A ends with a bar of E♭6 and a bar of E♭6, E♭6 and , which lead into the . The bridge opens with Fm7, B♭7, E♭maj7, and E♭6 with , then lands on Cm7. Bar 6 slides into through , and , and bars 7 and 8 ( and ) lead back to the last A, which closes on E♭6 and B♭7. These areas follow the iReal Pro chart.