Frederick Loewe, music · Alan Jay Lerner, lyrics · From the musical My Fair Lady, 1956
I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
Henry Higgins sings it in My Fair Lady, when he realizes his pupil Eliza has left. It is a slow ballad of just twenty , so a player can linger over every phrase. Hear it from Rex Harrison and Shelly Manne to Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery and McCoy Tyner.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Rex Harrison singing it in the show, then follows it through two piano trios, a tenor saxophone ballad, a trumpet-led band, a live guitar session, a saxophone and guitar quartet and a solo piano version by McCoy Tyner.
Rex Harrison introduced the song as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, which opened on Broadway on March 15, 1956. The cast album, recorded in one session at Columbia's 30th Street Studio that month and released on April 2, was the best-selling album in the United States that year.
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Listen for
Harrison's part in the show was written to sound like speech with a melody in it, so listen for where he talks and where he sings. A full orchestra under Franz Allers backs him for 5:15.
Try it on your instrument
Hum or play the melody along with the recording, letting each phrase follow the way Harrison speaks the words. Smaller version: do only the first four .
Shelly Manne & His Friends: Modern Jazz Performances of Songs from My Fair Lady
Drummer Shelly Manne, pianist André Previn and bassist Leroy Vinnegar recorded the whole album in one session at Contemporary's studio in Los Angeles on August 17, 1956. It was the first album made entirely of jazz versions of songs from one Broadway musical.
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Listen for
Three players, André Previn on piano, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Shelly Manne on drums. At 3:22 it is one of the shortest versions on this page.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four as one shape per half bar where the chart shows two: , , , . Smaller version: play only E♭maj7, Fm7 and B♭7, one per bar.
“I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face”, Rollins Plays for Bird
Sonny Rollins recorded the song on October 5, 1956 at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, with Kenny Dorham, Wade Legge, George Morrow and Max Roach. Prestige released it on Rollins Plays for Bird in the summer of 1957.
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Listen for
Sonny Rollins plays tenor saxophone and Kenny Dorham plays trumpet, with piano, bass and drums behind them. At 4:52 it runs longer than Shelly Manne's trio.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 slowly, one per beat pair: , , C7♭9, Fm7 . Smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar.
Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Gene Gammage recorded the album in Chicago on November 20 and 21, 1958. Norman Granz produced it and Verve released it in 1959.
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Listen for
Another piano trio, now at 6:38, almost twice as long as Shelly Manne's version. Oscar Peterson plays piano with Ray Brown on bass and Gene Gammage on drums.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last five of the chart (bars 16 to 20): , , , , . Smaller version: play only the last two bars.
“I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face”, Chet Baker Plays the Best of Lerner and Loewe
Chet Baker's band recorded this album of Lerner and Loewe songs at Reeves Sound Studios in New York on July 21 and 22, 1959. Orrin Keepnews produced it for Riverside, and it opens with this song.
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Listen for
Chet Baker's trumpet is joined by flute and two saxophones, Zoot Sims and Pepper Adams, over piano, bass and drums. The sound is fuller than the trios, and the track runs 4:15.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole once at the slow pace of this track, two beats per where the chart shows two. If that is too much, play only bars 1 to 8.
Wes Montgomery recorded this live at Tsubo, a coffee house in Berkeley, California, on June 25, 1962. Riverside released it that November on Full House, and producer Orrin Keepnews supervised the session.
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Listen for
Wes Montgomery plays guitar with only bass and drums, in front of an audience at a coffee house. At 3:32 it is short.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 8 on any instrument with a steady beat, one chord hit per beat. Smaller version: bars 1 to 4 only.
Paul Desmond and Jim Hall recorded it in New York on June 1, 1965 with Percy Heath and Connie Kay. RCA Victor issued it in 1966 on Easy Living, an album made from sessions between 1963 and 1965.
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Listen for
Paul Desmond's alto saxophone and Jim Hall's guitar share the front, with bass and drums behind them. The track runs 4:18.
Try it on your instrument
Play section B's first four , which repeat section A's: , , , . Then play bars 6 and 7 of B, Gm7 Cm7 and Fm7 B♭7, where B differs from A. Smaller version: play only the two differing bars.
McCoy Tyner recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on May 17, 1968. It closes Time for Tyner, a Blue Note album produced by Duke Pearson, as a piano solo.
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Listen for
Tyner plays alone, so the whole song comes from one piano. The track runs 4:26, and the rest of the album uses a quartet and a trio.
Try it on your instrument
Play only the roots of the in 1 to 4, one per beat: E♭, A♭, G, C, F, F, B♭, B♭. Smaller version: play E♭, F and B♭ on beat 1 of bars 1, 3 and 4.
Rex Harrison introduces the song as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady in 1956. That year Shelly Manne's trio records the first all-jazz album of songs from the show, and Sonny Rollins plays it with a quintet in October.
1960s
Wes Montgomery plays it live at a Berkeley coffee house in 1962, and McCoy Tyner closes his 1968 album with a solo piano version. Nat King Cole sings it on an album of the show's songs recorded in 1963.
1970s
Vibraphonist Milt Jackson records it in Los Angeles in 1978 for the Pablo label, with synthesizers and guitar in the band.
2000s
In 2009 Diana Krall sings it on Quiet Nights, released by Verve, with Claus Ogerman as arranger.
More great versions
4 more, from 1958 to 1964. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sCal Tjader - Stan Getz Sextet1958 · Cool jazz
Stan Getz and vibraphonist Cal Tjader led a sextet in San Francisco in February 1958 with Vince Guaraldi on piano. Fantasy issued the session as a Tjader and Getz album the same year.
Nat King Cole recorded an album of songs from the show in Philadelphia in September 1963, with members of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Capitol released it in August 1964.
Organist Shirley Scott recorded it with bassist Earl May and drummer Jimmy Cobb in New York on August 22, 1963. Impulse! issued it on For Members Only in 1964.
Valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer recorded it in New York on May 27, 1964 with Stan Getz, Gary Burton, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Elvin Jones. Columbia issued it on Bob Brookmeyer and Friends in 1965.
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
20 barsA · B form
E♭ majorkey centers
A8 bars
B12 bars
E♭
The runs 20 in two sections: A (8 bars) and B (12 bars). A opens with , , and , then moves through , Gm7 and Fm7 C7♭9 and closes with Fm7 B♭7. B starts the same way for five bars, changes bar 6 to Gm7 Cm7 and bar 7 to Fm7 B♭7, then adds a five-bar ending: , , Gm7 C7♭9, Fm7 and B♭7. The whole chorus stays in , with a few borrowed from outside the near the end.