Jazz Changes

Songs from 1926 to 1932

Jimmy McHugh

Jimmy McHugh wrote these five songs between 1926 and 1932. Four have words by Dorothy Fields: I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Exactly Like You, On the Sunny Side of the Street and Don't Blame Me. I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me has words by Clarence Gaskill. This page follows them from the dance-band records of the 1920s to the piano trios, singers' albums and duets that came after.

Through the years

  1. 1920s

    McHugh and Clarence Gaskill write I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me in 1926, and Roger Wolfe Kahn's orchestra records it in March 1927. McHugh and Dorothy Fields write I Can't Give You Anything but Love for Lew Leslie's Blackbird Revue, which opens in January 1928, and Louis Armstrong's Savoy Ballroom Five records it in 1929.

    Roger Wolfe Kahn I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me · 1927Louis Armstrong and His Savoy Ballroom Five I Can't Give You Anything but Love · 1929
  2. 1930s

    Three more songs are written: Exactly Like You and On the Sunny Side of the Street in 1930, Don't Blame Me in 1932. Louis Armstrong records Exactly Like You four days after Ruth Etting, and Ethel Waters has a number six record of Don't Blame Me in 1933. Billie Holiday, the Benny Goodman Trio, Count Basie's band, Django Reinhardt's quintet and Artie Shaw's big band all record McHugh songs by 1938.

    Ruth Etting Exactly Like You · 1930Louis Armstrong Exactly Like You · 1930Louis Armstrong I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me · 1930Ethel Waters with orchestra Don't Blame Me · 1933Benny Goodman Trio Exactly Like You · 1936Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson I Can't Give You Anything but Love · 1936Count Basie Exactly Like You · 1937Quintette du Hot Club de France Exactly Like You · 1937
    3 more
    Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me · 1938Artie Shaw I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me · 1938Adelaide Hall with Fats Waller I Can't Give You Anything but Love · 1938
  3. 1940s

    Billie Holiday sings On the Sunny Side of the Street with a piano trio in 1944, Tommy Dorsey's orchestra records it that year and reaches number 16 in 1945, and Django Reinhardt and Erroll Garner follow in 1946 and 1949. The King Cole Trio's Don't Blame Me becomes a hit when reissued in 1948, and Charlie Parker's quintet records it for Dial in 1947.

    The King Cole Trio Don't Blame Me · 1944Billie Holiday and the Eddie Heywood Trio On the Sunny Side of the Street · 1944Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra with the Sentimentalists On the Sunny Side of the Street · 1944Django Reinhardt with Hubert Rostaing On the Sunny Side of the Street · 1946Charlie Parker Don't Blame Me · 1947Erroll Garner Trio On the Sunny Side of the Street · 1949
  4. 1950s

    Gene Ammons records I Can't Give You Anything but Love in 1950, and Lester Young plays it and On the Sunny Side of the Street with Oscar Peterson's trio in 1952. Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz record Exactly Like You in 1953, and Lee Konitz in 1953 and Getz in 1955 play I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me. Peterson records an album of McHugh tunes in 1954, and Red Garland adds a conga player to Exactly Like You in 1958.

    Gene Ammons Quartet I Can't Give You Anything but Love · 1950Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio I Can't Give You Anything but Love · 1952Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio On the Sunny Side of the Street · 1952Dizzy Gillespie / Stan Getz Sextet Exactly Like You · 1953Lee Konitz and the Gerry Mulligan Quartet I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me · 1953The Oscar Peterson Trio Don't Blame Me · 1954Stan Getz Quartet I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me · 1955Ella Fitzgerald I Can't Give You Anything but Love · 1956
    4 more
    Bud Powell Don't Blame Me · 1957The Red Garland Trio I Can't Give You Anything but Love · 1957Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt On the Sunny Side of the Street · 1957The Red Garland Trio plus Ray Barretto on conga Exactly Like You · 1958
  5. 1960s

    Thelonious Monk plays Don't Blame Me alone at the piano in 1963, and Earl Hines plays On the Sunny Side of the Street as a solo piano piece in 1965. Barry Harris records two live takes of Don't Blame Me in 1960, and Art Pepper records I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me that November. Ella Fitzgerald sings Sunny Side with Count Basie's orchestra in 1963, and Oscar Peterson and Herb Ellis record Exactly Like You in Germany in 1969.

    The Barry Harris Trio Don't Blame Me · 1960Art Pepper Quartet I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me · 1960Thelonious Monk Don't Blame Me · 1963Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie On the Sunny Side of the Street · 1963Earl Hines On the Sunny Side of the Street · 1965Oscar Peterson Quartet Exactly Like You · 1969
  6. 1980s

    McCoy Tyner records Don't Blame Me twice, first with a trio in 1987 and then alone at the piano in concert at Merkin Hall a year later. The solo version comes out on his album Revelations. Ray Brown's trio with pianist Gene Harris records Exactly Like You in 1984.

    McCoy Tyner Don't Blame Me · 1988
  7. 1990s

    Dave Brubeck's group plays I Can't Give You Anything but Love live at the Blue Note in New York in October 1993, and Telarc releases it on the album NightShift in 1995. Diana Krall records it in 1998 for her album When I Look in Your Eyes.

    The Dave Brubeck Quartet I Can't Give You Anything but Love · 1993
  8. 2000s

    Terence Blanchard records I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me with singer Dianne Reeves in early 2001 for Let's Get Lost, an album of McHugh songs that Sony Classical releases that May.

    Terence Blanchard featuring Dianne Reeves I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me · 2001
  9. 2010s

    Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga sing I Can't Give You Anything but Love as a duet on their album Cheek to Cheek. It comes out as the album's second single in August 2014.

The tunes