Jimmy McHugh, music · Dorothy Fields, lyrics · Introduced by Frances Langford in Every Night at Eight, 1935
I'm in the Mood for Love
Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields wrote it for the 1935 film Every Night at Eight, sung by Frances Langford. James Moody's 1949 saxophone solo on it later got words and became a song of its own. Hear it from Louis Armstrong in 1935, Charlie Parker with strings in 1950 and Oscar Peterson's trio in 1954.
Listen in this order
Frances Langford's 1935 record from the film and Louis Armstrong's record from the same year come first. Then come a big band, a trio, a saxophone solo, Charlie Parker with strings, the vocal version of that solo and a piano trio.
Frances Langford sang it in the film Every Night at Eight, released on August 2, 1935, and recorded it for Brunswick two days earlier, on July 31. According to JazzStandards.com, her record made the charts, while Little Jack Little's version reached number one.
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Listen for
Listen for Frances Langford's voice carrying the tune, the way the film audience first heard it. Keep this plain version in your ear for the later steps.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the as : , , Dm7 G7, Cmaj7 . Hum the melody over them. Smaller version: play one chord per bar, C, G7, G7, C.
Louis Armstrong recorded it in New York on October 3, 1935, at the first session of his Decca contract. According to JazzStandards.com, the record reached number three that year.
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Listen for
Listen for Armstrong both singing and playing trumpet on the same record, with Luis Russell on piano in the band.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 of the as : , , , G7. Smaller version: play Em7, Dm7, G7, C, one chord per bar.
Billy Eckstine's big band recorded it in New York in October 1945 for the National label, with Fats Navarro, Gene Ammons and Art Blakey in the band. According to JazzStandards.com, the single reached number twelve in 1946.
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Listen for
Listen for Eckstine's voice out front and the full band behind him. Gene Ammons plays tenor saxophone and Art Blakey plays drums in the lineup.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the as : , , Dm7 G7, Cmaj7. Smaller version: play , C, D minor, C, one chord per bar.
The King Cole Trio recorded it at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles on March 15, 1946, and Capitol issued it on a single the same year. An earlier take from May 1945 stayed in the vault until the Mosaic box set.
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Listen for
Listen for Nat King Cole singing and playing piano at once, with Oscar Moore on guitar and Johnny Miller on bass. Three players make the whole sound.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole as , one at a time, while you hum the melody: , , Dm7 G7, Cmaj7 , , Dm7, G7, Cmaj7 G7. Smaller version: play only the first four bars.
James Moody recorded it in Stockholm on October 12, 1949, on a borrowed alto saxophone, with Swedish musicians. Eddie Jefferson later wrote words to the solo, and King Pleasure's 1952 record of them made the song a hit.
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Listen for
Listen for Moody's improvised saxophone line and the piano solo by Thore Swanerud in the middle. On King Pleasure's record, that piano part is sung as a woman's reply.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody slowly with the , then play it again and change only the rhythm, holding some notes longer. Improvising new notes over the chords is harder and needs more practice; changing the rhythm is the smaller version.
Mercury 78 rpm single, later Charlie Parker with Strings
Charlie Parker recorded it on July 5, 1950, with a string section, oboe, French horn, harp and a , conducted by Joe Lippman. Mercury issued it on a single paired with They Can't Take That Away From Me.
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Listen for
Listen for Parker's alto saxophone out in front of the strings, oboe, French horn and harp, with piano, bass and drums underneath.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last four of the as , slowly: , , , . Smaller version: play only the root of each bar: F♯, E, A, D.
King Pleasure recorded Eddie Jefferson's words to Moody's solo in New York on February 19, 1952, with Blossom Dearie singing the woman's part. Prestige issued it as Prestige 924 under the title Moody's Mood for Love.
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Listen for
Listen for Blossom Dearie answering King Pleasure in the middle, where the piano solo sat on Moody's record.
Try it on your instrument
Write two short lines of your own words for the first four of the and sing them over the : , , Dm7 G7, Cmaj7 . Fitting words to a whole improvised solo, as Jefferson did, is a much bigger job; the smaller version is words for four bars.
Oscar Peterson's trio, with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass, recorded it in Los Angeles on November 16, 1954, for an album of Jimmy McHugh songs on Clef. The album came out in 1955.
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Listen for
Listen for Peterson's piano, Herb Ellis's guitar and Ray Brown's bass. It is all instrumental, and at nearly four minutes it runs longer than any earlier step.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole 32 as , with your left hand on the root of each chord: , , Dm7 G7, Cmaj7 , , Dm7, G7, Cmaj7 G7, then the and the last A. Smaller version: play only the and stop.
Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields write it for the film Every Night at Eight, released in August 1935, where Frances Langford sings it. Her Brunswick record and Louis Armstrong's Decca record both come out that year.
1940s
Billy Eckstine's big band records it in 1945, and the King Cole Trio follows in 1946. In Stockholm in 1949, James Moody records a saxophone solo on it.
1950s
Charlie Parker plays it twice in 1950, once with a quartet and once with strings. King Pleasure sings words written to a saxophone solo in 1952, and Oscar Peterson's trio records it in 1954.
1970s
Ella Fitzgerald sings it in January 1974 at a Pablo session with Joe Pass and Tommy Flanagan. The album comes out in 1979.
2000s
Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra release it as a single with Jamiroquai in 2000. It is on the soundtrack of the film Kevin & Perry Go Large, and a video follows in 2001.
More great versions
6 more, from 1944 to 2000. Tap a cover to play it here.
1940sColeman Hawkins Quintet1944
1950sCharlie Parker Quartet1950 · Bebop
Julie London1955 · Vocal
James Moody and His Band, vocal by Eddie Jefferson1956 · Bebop
1960s
1970sElla Fitzgerald1974
1980s
1990s
2000sJools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra featuring Jamiroquai2000
Coleman Hawkins Quintet
1944
Keynote 78 rpm single
Coleman Hawkins led a quintet with Roy Eldridge on trumpet and Teddy Wilson on piano in New York on January 31, 1944. Keynote issued it as K610.
Charlie Parker recorded it in New York in 1950 with Hank Jones, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich. Verve issued it on Jazz Perennial: The Genius of Charlie Parker #7.
Seven years after his Stockholm solo, Moody recorded the vocal version himself in Chicago, with Eddie Jefferson singing his own words. It came out on Checker 855 and on the album Moody's Mood for Love.
Ella Fitzgerald sang it at a Pablo session in Los Angeles on January 8, 1974, with a band of trumpeters, saxophonists and a . Pablo released the album in 1979.
Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra featuring Jamiroquai
2000
Small World, Big Band
Jools Holland's orchestra and the band Jamiroquai released it as a single in 2000 on the soundtrack of Kevin & Perry Go Large. A video followed in 2001.
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
C majorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · A form
C major → E minor → C majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
C
E m
C
Thirty-two in four sections of eight, , all in apart from a short visit to in the . Each opens with , then plays in bars 2 and 3 and Cmaj7 in bar 4. Bar 5 is , bar 6 is Dm7 and bar 7 is G7. In the chart, bar 8 is Cmaj7 G7 the first time, which leads into the repeat, and after that. The bridge, bars 17 to 24, starts with Dm7 G7, Cmaj7 , Dm7 G7 and Cmaj7, then moves to and Em7 for the visit to E minor. Bars 23 and 24 play and G7 to lead back to the last A, which ends on C6. According to JazzStandards.com, the original is C major. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some chords differently.