Richard Rodgers, music · Lorenz Hart, lyrics · Introduced by Shirley Ross in the musical Higher and Higher
It Never Entered My Mind
It Never Entered My Mind is a 1940 ballad by Rodgers and Hart, from the show Higher and Higher. Singers and instrumentalists return to it for its slow pace and its sad, looking-back mood. Records here run from Shirley Ross in 1940 to Keith Jarrett's trio in 1983.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the singer who introduced the song on Broadway in 1940, then follows two great vocal records, a trumpet ballad, two tenor saxophones and a trumpet with guitar, and ends with a vocal group and a piano trio in the 1970s and 1980s.
1940sShirley Ross, orchestra conducted by Ray Sinatra1940
1950sFrank Sinatra with Nelson Riddle1955 · Swing
Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman1956 · Vocal
Miles Davis Quintet1956 · Hard bop
Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster1957 · Bebop
Chet Baker1958 · Hard bop
1960s
1970sThe Oscar Peterson Trio with the Singers Unlimited1971 · Swing
1980sKeith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette1983 · Post-bop
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Hear the singer who introduced it
Shirley Ross, orchestra conducted by Ray Sinatra · 1940
Higher and Higher
Shirley Ross introduced the song in the 1940 Rodgers and Hart show Higher and Higher. She recorded it for Decca on 2 March 1940 with an orchestra conducted by Ray Sinatra.
From the show
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Shirley Ross sings and an orchestra plays behind her. This is the voice that first sang the song on the Broadway stage, on a record of about three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the , one bar at a time: F with F+, with F+, to , then to Gm7. Hum the tune over the , slowly.
Frank Sinatra with Nelson Riddle and his orchestra · 1955 · Swing, Vocal
In the Wee Small Hours
Sinatra recorded it for Capitol at KHJ Studios in Hollywood on 4 March 1955, with Nelson Riddle arranging, for the album In the Wee Small Hours. He had first recorded the song for Columbia in 1947.
Singer with orchestra
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Sinatra's voice stays out in front while an orchestra plays behind him. The record runs 2:42, one of the shortest on this page.
Try it on your instrument
Play the (eight ) slowly: , to , Fmaj7, Gm7 to C7, Fmaj7 to Gm7, to to , Am7 to , Gm7 to C7. Hum the tune over it.
Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman and his orchestra · 1956 · Vocal
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book
Fitzgerald recorded it in August 1956 for her two-record Rodgers and Hart set on Verve. Norman Granz produced, and Buddy Bregman arranged and conducted.
Singer with orchestra
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Ella Fitzgerald's voice leads from start to finish with an orchestra behind her. At 4:08 it runs longer than the Sinatra record before it.
Try it on your instrument
Play 7 and 8 of the both ways. The first time, to , then to , which sends you back to the top. The second time, G7sus to G7, then to C7, which carries you into the .
The quintet taped it at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack on 11 May 1956, one of the Prestige sessions that filled four albums. It came out on Workin' in 1960.
Trumpet
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Davis's trumpet carries the tune with piano, bass and drums behind him and no singer. The track runs 5:26, about twice the length of the Sinatra record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last and its tag slowly: bars 1 to 5 as before, then to , to , to , Gm7 to C7, and finish on to Gm7 to C7. If that is too much, play only the last two bars.
Hawkins and Webster recorded it in Los Angeles on 16 October 1957 with Oscar Peterson's . Verve issued it in 1959 on Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster.
Two tenor saxophones
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Two tenor saxophones, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster, share the record, with piano, guitar, bass and drums behind them. At 5:50 it is one of the longer versions here.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 of the slowly: to , to to , Am7 to , Gm7 to . Listen for the E7 leading into Am7, then for the D7 leading into Gm7.
Chet Baker recorded it at Reeves Sound Studios in New York on 30 December 1958 for his Riverside album Chet. On this track he plays with Kenny Burrell on guitar, Paul Chambers on bass and Connie Kay on drums.
Guitar
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Baker's trumpet leads, with Kenny Burrell's guitar, Paul Chambers's bass and Connie Kay's drums behind him. There is no piano on this track.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the as a slow loop: , to , Fmaj7, Gm7 to C7. Hold each for the full bar and listen to the bass notes.
The Oscar Peterson Trio with the Singers Unlimited · 1971 · Swing, Vocal
In Tune
Oscar Peterson's trio recorded it in July 1971 with the four voices of the Singers Unlimited at a private studio in Villingen, West Germany. It appeared on the album In Tune.
Vocal group
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Four singers, the Singers Unlimited, take the place of a single singer, with Oscar Peterson's piano, bass and drums behind them. The record runs 4:01.
Try it on your instrument
Play 6 of the first A, to , and then bar 6 of the last A, to . Hear how the same bar changes the second time.
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette · 1983 · Post-bop
Standards, Vol. 1
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette recorded it at the Power Station in New York in January 1983, in the sessions that launched their Standards Trio. It is track 3 of Standards, Vol. 1 on ECM.
Piano trio
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Jarrett's piano leads, with Peacock's bass and DeJohnette's drums beside him and no singer. At 6:43 it is the longest record on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole 34 from the chart on this page: the with its first ending, A again with its second ending, B, then the last A with its two-bar tag. If that is too much, loop only the first A.
Rodgers and Hart write the song for the Broadway show Higher and Higher, where Shirley Ross introduces it. She records it for Decca on 2 March 1940, with Ray Sinatra conducting.
1950s
Frank Sinatra records it with Nelson Riddle in 1955, and Ella Fitzgerald follows in 1956. Miles Davis plays it twice, in 1954 for Blue Note and in 1956 for Prestige.
1960s
Anita O'Day sings it with Billy May's arrangements in June 1960. Chris Connor records it with Maynard Ferguson's band that December, and Johnny Hartman sings it in 1964.
1970s
Oscar Peterson's trio records it in July 1971 with the four-voice Singers Unlimited, at a private studio in Villingen, West Germany.
1980s
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette record it in January 1983 at the Power Station in New York, for Standards, Vol. 1.
More great versions
5 more, from 1954 to 1960. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sMiles Davis Quartet1954 · Modal jazz
Julie London1955 · Vocal
Stan Getz1957
1960sChris Connor with Maynard Ferguson1960 · Big band
Miles Davis recorded it with Horace Silver, Percy Heath and Art Blakey at Van Gelder's studio on 6 March 1954. It came out on a Blue Note 10-inch LP two years before his Prestige version.
Julie London recorded it at Western Recorders in Hollywood in August 1955 for her first LP, Julie Is Her Name. Barney Kessel played guitar and Ray Leatherwood bass.
Stan Getz plays the song as a tenor saxophone feature with Oscar Peterson's at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in October 1957, without J.J. Johnson on this track.
Chris Connor sang it with Maynard Ferguson's band in New York on 14 December 1960, in an arrangement by Don Sebesky, for the Atlantic album Double Exposure.
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
34 barsA · A · B · A form
F majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A10 bars
F
The runs 34 in : A, A, B, A, with a two-bar tag on the last A. Each A starts on F and F+ for two bars, then to , to Gm7, Fmaj7 to and to in bars 3 to 6. Bars 7 and 8 differ on the two passes: the first goes to and Gm7 to and returns to the top, the second goes G7sus to G7 and to C7 and moves into B. B holds Fmaj7 for a bar, plays Gm7 to C7, and repeats that, then goes Fmaj7 to Gm7, Am7 to to , Am7 to D7 and Gm7 to C7. The last A matches the first for five bars, then plays to , Gm7 to C7, Am7 to D7 and Gm7 to C7, and adds a tag of to Gm7 to C7 that leads into the next chorus.