Harry Warren, music · Johnny Mercer, lyrics · Introduced by Louis Armstrong in the film Going Places, 1938
Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers is a 1938 song by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer, written for the film Going Places. In the film, Louis Armstrong sings it to a racehorse of the same name. Gene Krupa, Frank Sinatra, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz and Lester Young all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Louis Armstrong, who introduced the song in the film, and Gene Krupa's band, then turns to Frank Sinatra and to Tony Bennett with Count Basie. It ends with four small groups: Dave Brubeck, Barney Kessel, Stan Getz and Lester Young.
Louis Armstrong introduced the song in the 1938 film Going Places, where he sings it to a racehorse named Jeepers Creepers. He recorded it for Decca in New York on January 18, 1939, and the record came out on Decca 2267.
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Listen for
Armstrong sings it with his orchestra behind him, and the record runs 2:45. Every other version on this page plays or sings this same tune.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first two slowly, two per bar: , then . Hum the melody over them. Smaller version: play only Cm7 and F7, back and forth, for four bars.
Gene Krupa and His Orchestra (vocal by Leo Watson) · 1938
Say It With a Kiss / Jeepers Creepers
Gene Krupa's band recorded the song in Los Angeles on November 18, 1938, with Leo Watson singing. Brunswick issued it in 1939 on a record with Say It With A Kiss on the other side.
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Listen for
Leo Watson sings while Krupa's band plays behind him. The record runs 3:02, a little longer than Armstrong's.
Try it on your instrument
Play only the root note of each through the first 8 , two notes per bar: C F, B♭ G, C F, B♭ G, C F, B♭ G, C F, then B♭. Smaller version: play just the first two bars.
Frank Sinatra recorded the song for Capitol in Hollywood in April 1954 with Nelson Riddle arranging and conducting. It is on Swing Easy!, his first album with Riddle's arrangements, released on Capitol H-528 in August 1954.
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Listen for
Sinatra sings it over Nelson Riddle's arrangement, and the record runs 2:23. It is shorter than the Krupa record.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 17 to 24: , , Fm7 B♭7, E♭6, , , Gm7 C7, Cm7 . Smaller version: play only the first four bars of it.
Tony Bennett with the Count Basie Orchestra · 1959
Strike Up the Band
Tony Bennett recorded the song with Count Basie's band in New York at sessions on January 3 and 5, 1959. It is on the album Strike Up the Band, which Roulette released in May 1959.
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Listen for
Bennett sings with Basie's band behind him, and the record runs 2:08, the shortest on this page.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last A, 25 to 34. It matches the first A until bar 30, where replaces , and it ends , B♭6 G7, Cm7 F7, B♭6. Smaller version: play only bars 33 and 34, Cm7 F7 then B♭6.
Dave Brubeck's quartet recorded the song in New York on October 12, 1954, for the album Brubeck Time. Columbia released the album in February 1955, and George Avakian produced it.
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The quartet plays it without words: Paul Desmond on alto saxophone and Dave Brubeck on piano, with Bob Bates on bass and Joe Dodge on drums. The record runs 4:57, about twice as long as the Sinatra and Bennett records.
Try it on your instrument
Loop the first A, 1 to 8, with a steady beat: , , Cm7 F7, B♭6 Gm7, Cm7 F7, B♭6 Gm7, Cm7 F7, B♭6. Play the melody once over it. Smaller version: loop only Cm7 F7, B♭6 Gm7.
Barney Kessel recorded the song at Contemporary's studio in Los Angeles on September 12, 1955, with Bob Cooper, who plays oboe and tenor saxophone on the album. It came out on Kessel Plays Standards in 1956.
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Listen for
Barney Kessel leads on guitar. Bob Cooper, who plays oboe and tenor saxophone on the album, is in the group with Hampton Hawes on piano, Red Mitchell on bass and Chuck Thompson on drums. The record runs 3:49.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 17 to 24: , , Fm7 B♭7, E♭6, , , Gm7 C7, Cm7 . Smaller version: play only the first four bars, Fm7 B♭7, E♭6 Cm7, Fm7 B♭7, E♭6.
Stan Getz recorded the song in Stockholm on December 16, 1955, with Bengt Hallberg on piano, Gunnar Johnson on bass and Anders Burman on drums. It is the last track on Stan Getz in Stockholm, released on Verve in 1956.
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Listen for
Getz plays tenor saxophone with piano, bass and drums behind him, and the record runs 5:01.
Try it on your instrument
Soloing over is a bigger task, so start smaller: over the first A, play one tone per beat, in order, for each chord ( , and so on). Smaller version: do it only for the first two .
Lester Young recorded this live set at Olivia Davis's Patio Lounge in Washington, D.C., on December 7, 1956, where pianist Bill Potts led the house band. The record was first issued in 1980 as part of a Washington, D.C. series.
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Young plays tenor saxophone in a club with Potts on piano, Williams on bass and Lucht on drums. At 6:14 it is the longest record on this page.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first two of the melody three ways: on the beat, a little behind it, a little ahead of it. This needs only the melody. Smaller version: try just the first bar both on the beat and behind it.
Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer wrote the song for the 1938 film Going Places, where Louis Armstrong sang it. Gene Krupa's band recorded it with Leo Watson that November, and Armstrong's Decca record followed in January 1939.
1950s
Frank Sinatra records it with Nelson Riddle in April 1954, and Dave Brubeck's quartet records it in October. Tony Bennett sings it with Count Basie's band in January 1959.
1960s
Ruby Braff joins the Ralph Sutton Quartet for a live set at Sunnie's Rendezvous in Aspen, Colorado, in February 1968. Singer Maxine Sullivan records the song in June 1969 with Bob Wilber on reeds.
More great versions
4 more, from 1953 to 1969. Tap a cover to play it here.
The Dave Brubeck Quartet played it live at the Blackhawk club in San Francisco in September 1953, with Paul Desmond on alto saxophone. Fantasy first issued it on Jazz at the Blackhawk in 1956, and it runs over seven minutes.
According to Paul Combs's Dameronia, as cited on Wikipedia, Tadd Dameron's Flossie Lou is a new melody over the of Jeepers Creepers. His octet recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on March 9, 1956.
Sidney Bechet on soprano saxophone and Martial Solal on piano recorded it on March 12, 1957, with Pierre Michelot on bass and Kenny Clarke on drums. It first came out on the French label Swing.
Singer Maxine Sullivan recorded it in June 1969 with Bob Wilber on reeds, Bernie Leighton on piano, George Duvivier on bass and Gus Johnson on drums. Audiophile Records released it in 1987 on Close as Pages in a Book.
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
B♭ majorusual key
34 barsA · A · B · A form
B♭ major → E♭ major → F major → B♭ majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A10 bars
B♭
B♭
E♭
F
B♭
B♭
The tune stays in and visits and in the . Each , bars 1 to 8, runs , , Cm7 F7, B♭6 Gm7, Cm7 F7, B♭6 Gm7, Cm7 F7, B♭6. The A returns in bars 9 to 16. The bridge, bars 17 to 24, plays , Cm7, Fm7 B♭7, E♭6 for the E♭ stretch, then Gm7 , , Gm7 C7 for F, and Cm7 F7 to lead home. The last A, bars 25 to 34, repeats the first A through bar 29. Bar 30 plays instead of B♭6 Gm7, and a two-bar ending follows: Cm7 F7, B♭6 G7, Cm7 F7, B♭6. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some differently.