Jerry Livingston, music · Marty Symes and Al J. Neiburg, lyrics · A 1933 hit for Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra
It's the Talk of the Town
Jerry Livingston wrote the tune in 1933, with words by Marty Symes and Al J. Neiburg. The words follow the gossip after a couple ends their relationship once wedding invitations have gone out. Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra took it to number six in 1933, and Fletcher Henderson's record reached number 20.
Listen in this order
The path starts with a 1933 dance band and a 1946 big band, then moves to small groups led by saxophone and trumpet. It also includes a solo pianist, a live quartet from 1962, and two versions from the 1990s, one with guitar and one for solo piano.
Fletcher Henderson's band recorded it in New York on September 22, 1933, with Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone. According to JazzStandards.com, the record reached number 20 that year.
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Listen for
A big dance band plays the tune in three and a half minutes, and Coleman Hawkins takes a saxophone solo.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four slowly with two in each bar: to , to , Fmaj7 to , to . Smaller version: play only Gm7 to C7 and then Fmaj7 to hear the pull back home.
Trumpeter Roy Eldridge led a big band through it in New York on September 24, 1946, and Decca issued it on a single with Les Bounce. The GRP album After You've Gone collected it in 1991.
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A big band led by trumpeter Roy Eldridge plays it in about three minutes, with trumpets, trombones and saxophones all in the band.
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Play the first eight of the , two to a bar where the chart shows two: , , Fmaj7 , , Fmaj7 , E♭7 , then and Gm7 C7. Smaller version: play just the first four bars.
Dexter Gordon's quartet recorded it in Los Angeles on June 12, 1947, and Dial issued take B as Talk of the Town on Dial 1038. The Spotlite set On Dial - The Complete Sessions carries the same take.
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Listen for
A tenor saxophone quartet with piano, bass and drums plays it in a little over three minutes, with Gordon's saxophone out in front.
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Play the 's first four , to , Gm7 to D7, Gm7, then to , slowly. Hear how it sits in before the tune heads home to F.
“Talk of the Town”, The Dizzy Gillespie Stan Getz Sextet
Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz recorded it in Los Angeles on December 9, 1953, with Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Max Roach. Norgran first issued it in 1954, split over two sides of a single.
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Listen for
Trumpet and tenor saxophone share the lead over piano, guitar, bass and drums, and the track runs nearly seven minutes, twice as long as the earlier records.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole , 1 to 8, then the 's first four bars, and notice how the music darkens into . Playing a solo over this takes more experience than this page assumes; a smaller version is to play the melody at a slow tempo with the .
Erroll Garner recorded it alone at the piano in New York on March 14, 1955, for his Mercury album Solitaire.
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Listen for
One pianist plays the whole tune alone for six minutes, with no band behind him.
Try it on your instrument
Play the as a slow left-hand pattern while a right hand plays the melody you know. Smaller version: play only the first two , to and to , over and over.
“It's the Talk of the Town (live at the Village Gate, NYC, 1962)”, Hawkins! Alive! At the Village Gate
Coleman Hawkins played it live at New York's Village Gate in August 1962 with Tommy Flanagan, Major Holley and Eddie Locke. According to JazzStandards.com, he first recorded the tune with Fletcher Henderson in 1933 and was still performing it thirty years later.
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Listen for
A tenor saxophone quartet plays live in a club, and this version runs nine and a half minutes, nearly three times as long as the 1933 record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the tune through twice in a row, , at a slow tempo, and count the 32 so you know where each time round ends. Playing a solo over it takes more experience than this page assumes; a smaller version is to play the twice.
Bennie Wallace named his 1993 Enja album The Talk of the Town after this song. He recorded it in January 1993 in Hollywood with guitarist Jerry Hahn, bassist Bill Huntington and drummer Alvin Queen.
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Listen for
Tenor saxophone, guitar, bass and drums play it for just over six minutes, with no piano in the group.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 17 to 24, slowly with a bass note and one per half bar: , Gm7 D7, Gm7, , , G7 D7, Dm7 G7, . Smaller version: play only the first four of those bars.
Dave Brubeck recorded the album Just You, Just Me alone at the piano in 1994, in sessions in New York and Connecticut, and Telarc released it that September.
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A single pianist plays the tune in just over four minutes, about two minutes shorter than Erroll Garner's solo record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody with the in your left hand, one chord per for the first four bars, then a longer rest on the at the end of the . Smaller version: play the melody alone, then add the first chord only.
Jerry Livingston, Marty Symes and Al J. Neiburg write it in 1933. Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra reaches number six that year, and Fletcher Henderson's record with Coleman Hawkins reaches number 20.
1940s
Roy Eldridge leads a big band through it in New York in 1946. Dexter Gordon's quartet records it in Los Angeles in 1947, and Dial issues take B.
1950s
Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz record it in Los Angeles in 1953 with Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Max Roach. Erroll Garner plays it alone at the piano in 1955.
1960s
Coleman Hawkins plays it live at New York's Village Gate in August 1962 with Tommy Flanagan, Major Holley and Eddie Locke, and the take runs nine and a half minutes.
1990s
Bennie Wallace names his 1993 Enja album after the song and plays it with guitarist Jerry Hahn. Dave Brubeck plays it alone at the piano on his 1994 Telarc album Just You, Just Me.
More great versions
2 more, from 1956 to 1991. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sLester Young1956
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990sRussell Malone1991 · Swing
Lester Young
1956
“It's the Talk of the Town (live at Olivia Davis's Patio Lounge)”, Lester Young In Washington, D.C., 1956, Vol. 4
Lester Young plays it live in Washington, D.C. in 1956 on a volume of club recordings issued in 1981.
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
32 barsA · A · B · A form
F major → G minor → F majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
F
G m
F
The tune is 32 in four 8-bar sections, , in . Each A opens with the same six bars, two in each: to , to , Fmaj7 to , to , Fmaj7 to and E♭7 to . The first A then goes , Gm7 to C7, which leads into the second A. The second A closes with G7 to C7 and . B (bars 17 to 24) starts in : Gm7 to D7 twice, Gm7, then to . It then moves through G7 to , G7 to D7 and Dm7 to G7, and the last bar is . The final A matches the first six bars and ends on G7 to C7, then F6 with C7.