Cole Porter, music and lyrics · Introduced by Peter Cookson in the musical Can-Can, 1953
It's All Right with Me
Cole Porter wrote it for the 1953 Broadway musical Can-Can, where a judge sings it. At 72 it is longer than most standards, and it shifts between minor and major . Hear it from Erroll Garner, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, Johnny Griffin and Brad Mehldau.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the 1953 Broadway cast album, then follows the song through a live piano trio, a tenor saxophone quartet, a singer with an orchestra, a quartet, a three-horn band, a tenor and piano quartet and a modern piano trio.
1960sArt Farmer-Benny Golson Jazztet1960 · Hard bop
1970sZoot Sims - Jimmy Rowles Quartet1977
1980s
1990sBrad Mehldau Trio1997
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Peter Cookson (Can-Can original Broadway cast) · 1953
Can-Can
Peter Cookson sings it as the judge in Can-Can, which opened on Broadway on May 7, 1953. The cast album was recorded ten days later, on May 17, with Milton Rosenstock conducting.
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Peter Cookson sings it with the show's orchestra behind him, and the record lasts about two minutes. It is the shortest version on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four as , one chord to a bar: , , , . A smaller version: play Cm for two bars, then Cm7 for two bars, and hum the tune over it.
Garner's trio played it live at Sunset School in Carmel, California, on September 19, 1955. Nobody planned to release the concert, but his manager found a tape running and Columbia issued it as Concert by the Sea.
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Erroll Garner plays piano with Eddie Calhoun on bass and Denzil Best on drums, in front of a live audience. The track runs 3:31.
Try it on your instrument
Play the four that lead back to the top, one to a bar: , F7, , . A smaller version: play F7 for two bars, then G7♭9.
Sonny Rollins recorded it with Ray Bryant, George Morrow and Max Roach at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack on December 2, 1955. It first came out on the Prestige album Work Time.
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Rollins leads on tenor saxophone, with Ray Bryant on piano, George Morrow on bass and Max Roach on drums. The track runs 6:07.
Try it on your instrument
On a bass or with your left hand, play one root note for each of the first eight : C, C, C, C, C, C, F, F. A smaller version: play C for six bars, then F for two.
Ella Fitzgerald recorded it on February 7, 1956, with Buddy Bregman arranging and conducting. It is on Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book, the first of her Song Book albums for Verve.
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Fitzgerald sings with a studio orchestra that Buddy Bregman arranged and conducted. The track runs 3:07.
Try it on your instrument
Play the second half of the first section, one to a : , Fm7, , F♯°7, , . A smaller version: play Fm7 for two bars, then C7♭9.
Johnny Griffin recorded it with Wynton Kelly, Curly Russell and Max Roach on April 17, 1956, at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack. It is on his Blue Note album Introducing Johnny Griffin.
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Griffin leads on tenor saxophone, with Wynton Kelly on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums. The track runs 5:00.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the , two bars to a : then . A smaller version: play only B♭m6/E♭ and listen for where the record changes .
The Jazztet, led by Art Farmer and Benny Golson, recorded it in New York in February 1960. It is on the group's album Meet the Jazztet.
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Art Farmer on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone and Benny Golson on tenor saxophone stand in front of a with McCoy Tyner on piano. The track runs 3:56.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last four of the form, one to a bar: , , , . A smaller version: play E♭6, then G7♭9, which turns back to the top.
Zoot Sims and pianist Jimmy Rowles recorded it with George Mraz and Mousie Alexander at RCA Studios in New York on October 27 and 28, 1977. Norman Granz produced the session, which Pablo issued in 1978.
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Zoot Sims leads on tenor saxophone and Jimmy Rowles plays piano, with George Mraz on bass and Mousie Alexander on drums. The track runs 6:52.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first section's opening as a slow walk: , , , , then Cm7 twice. A smaller version: play only Cm7 and Cm6 and listen for the change between them.
“It's Alright with Me”, Live at the Village Vanguard: The Art of the Trio Volume Two
Brad Mehldau's trio recorded it live at the Village Vanguard during a week there in 1997. It is the first track on Live at the Village Vanguard: The Art of the Trio Volume Two.
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Mehldau plays piano with Larry Grenadier on bass and Jorge Rossy on drums, live in the club. The track runs 12:39, the longest on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Tap the beat with the record and say A, A, B, A as the sections change, then count how many times the form comes around in 12:39. A smaller version: tap along to the first section only.
Cole Porter writes it for the Broadway musical Can-Can, and Peter Cookson sings it on the May 1953 cast album. Ella Fitzgerald records it for Verve in 1956, and Sonny Rollins plays it on tenor saxophone with a quartet.
1960s
Art Farmer and Benny Golson's Jazztet records it in New York in February 1960 for the album Meet the Jazztet. Bill Evans' trio plays an incomplete take in a Black Forest studio in 1968.
1970s
Tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims and pianist Jimmy Rowles record it with a quartet at RCA Studios in New York in October 1977, for the album If I'm Lucky.
1980s
Frank Sinatra, who sang it in the 1960 Can-Can film, records it again in 1984 for the album L.A. Is My Lady, produced by Quincy Jones.
1990s
Brad Mehldau's trio plays it during a week at the Village Vanguard in 1997. The 12-minute version opens the album Live at the Village Vanguard: The Art of the Trio Volume Two.
More great versions
5 more, from 1956 to 1984. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sJimmy Smith Trio1956
The Curtis Fuller Jazztet with Benny Golson1959
Oscar Peterson Trio1959 · Bebop
1960sBill Evans Trio1968
1970s
1980sFrank Sinatra with Quincy Jones1984 · Fusion
Jimmy Smith Trio
1956
The Incredible Jimmy Smith at Club "Baby Grand" Wilmington, Delaware
Jimmy Smith's organ trio played it at Club Baby Grand in Wilmington, Delaware, on August 4, 1956, in the afternoon's second set. It runs almost twelve minutes.
“It's Allright with Me”, Oscar Peterson Plays the Cole Porter Song Book
Oscar Peterson's trio recorded it in Chicago for an album of Cole Porter songs, in sessions between July 14 and August 9, 1959. The track runs under three minutes.
“It's All Right with Me (Incomplete)”, Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest
Bill Evans, Eddie Gomez and Jack DeJohnette recorded this incomplete take in a Black Forest studio on June 20, 1968. Resonance released it in 2016 on Some Other Time: The Lost Session from the Black Forest.
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 minorusual key
72 barsA · A · B · A form
C minor → E♭ major → C minor → E♭ majorkey centers
A16 bars
A16 bars
B16 bars · bridge
A24 bars
C m
E♭
C m
E♭
The iReal Pro chart runs 72 in and , and AllSolos also lists the tune at 72 bars. Each A opens in C minor with , , and , then Cm7, Cm7, and Fm7, then twice, and . The first A closes with , F7, and , which lead back to Cm for the second A. The second A closes with Fm7, and twice, which lead into the . The bridge sits in E♭ major over an E♭ bass note: , , and (two bars each), then B♭m6/E♭, E♭°7 and A♭°7/E♭ again. It ends on Dm7♭5 and G7♭9, which turn back to C minor. The last A repeats the first twelve bars, then runs twelve more: F7, F7, Fm7, B♭7, then E♭maj7, , , , then , B♭7, E♭6 and G7♭9, which turns back to the top.