Jule Styne, music · Betty Comden and Adolph Green, lyrics · Introduced by Sydney Chaplin and Judy Holliday in Bells Are Ringing, 1956
Just in Time
Just in Time is a 1956 Broadway song by Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. The tune stays simple while the underneath keep changing, an idea Styne took from Vincent Youmans. Singers and jazz players return to it, from Tony Bennett in 1956 to Tom Rainey's quintet in 2013.
Listen in this order
The path starts in 1956 with the Broadway cast and Tony Bennett's single, then follows Dean Martin's film-era vocal. After that come Sonny Rollins's quartet, Oscar Peterson's trio and Lee Morgan's quintet, then Keith Jarrett's long live trio and Tom Rainey's 2013 quintet.
1950sJudy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin, Bells Are Ringing original Broadway cast1956 · Stage & screen
Tony Bennett with Percy Faith's orchestra1956
Sonny Rollins Quartet1957 · Hard bop
Oscar Peterson Trio1959 · Swing
1960sDean Martin with Nelson Riddle's orchestra1960 · Swing
Lee Morgan Quintet1960 · Hard bop
1970s
1980sKeith Jarrett Trio1989 · Post-bop
1990s
2000s
2010sTom Rainey Obbligato2013 · Contemporary jazz
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Hear it in the show
Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin, Bells Are Ringing original Broadway cast · 1956 · Stage & screen
Bells Are Ringing
The Broadway cast recorded the album on December 2, 1956, three days after the show opened, with Milton Rosenstock conducting. Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin sing this track.
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Chaplin and Holliday sing it with the show's orchestra, and the track lasts 3:42. Start here to hear the song in the setting it was written for.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 4 in B♭, one per bar: , B♭maj7, , , and hum the tune over them. Smaller version: hold B♭ for two bars, then for two bars.
Tony Bennett recorded it on September 19, 1956, with Percy Faith conducting and arranging, ten weeks before Bells Are Ringing opened on November 29. Columbia released it as a single on October 8, with The Autumn Waltz on the other side.
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Bennett sings over an orchestra of reeds, brass and strings, with a of piano, guitar, bass and drums. The whole record lasts 2:32.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 12 as , , and , two bars each. Each leads to the next. Smaller version: play each of the four chords once, slowly.
Dean Martin with Nelson Riddle's orchestra · 1960 · Swing, Vocal
This Time I'm Swingin'!
Dean Martin sang the song with Judy Holliday in the 1960 film of Bells Are Ringing, then recorded it in May 1960 for the Capitol album This Time I'm Swingin'!. Nelson Riddle conducted.
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Martin sings with Nelson Riddle conducting, and the record lasts only 2:15. He had sung the same song with Judy Holliday in the 1960 film.
Try it on your instrument
Play 13 to 16: , E♭maj7, , then and in the last bar, which lead into the B part. Smaller version: play E♭ for two bars, then A♭ for one bar.
Sonny Rollins recorded it with a quartet at Reeves Sound Studios in New York on June 11 and 12, 1957, for the Riverside album The Sound of Sonny. Riverside also issued it on a single with The Last Time I Saw Paris.
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Rollins plays tenor saxophone with a of piano, bass and drums. The track lasts about four minutes.
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Soloing over the B part takes more skill. A smaller version is to play only the low notes of 17 to 20 along with the record: G, F♯, F and C.
The Oscar Peterson Trio recorded it in Paris on May 18, 1959, for the Verve album A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra. Ray Brown played bass and Ed Thigpen drums.
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Piano, bass and drums play the tune alone, and the track lasts only 1:52, the shortest on this path. The album title is A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra.
Try it on your instrument
Play 21 to 24 in B♭: , B♭6, , . Smaller version: play B♭6 for two bars, then A♭7 and G7 once each.
Lee Morgan led a quintet with Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone and Art Blakey on drums in Chicago on October 14, 1960. Vee-Jay released the track on Expoobident in 1961.
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A trumpet and a tenor saxophone share the over piano, bass and drums, and the track lasts 3:33. Art Blakey is the drummer.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last four , 29 to 32: , then and , then , then Cm7 and F7 again, which sends the tune back to the top. Smaller version: play Cm7, then F7, then B♭6.
The trio recorded it live at the Philharmonie in Cologne on October 15, 1989, and ECM released it on the album Tribute in 1990. The take runs just over ten minutes.
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Piano, bass and drums play for more than ten minutes, far longer than any other track in this path, with an audience in the room.
Try it on your instrument
Play all 32 once, a per bar (two chords in the bars that show two), then play the first two minutes along with the record. Smaller version: play only bars 1 to 4 and repeat them.
Tom Rainey's quintet recorded the album Obbligato at Systems Two in Brooklyn on February 28, 2013. Intakt released it in 2014, and Just in Time is its first track.
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Trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums play it in 3:09. The album also has a second take called Just in Time Again.
Try it on your instrument
Play 25 to 28: , , , , one per bar, and hum the tune over them. Smaller version: play C7, then F7.
Tony Bennett records it in September 1956, ahead of the November opening of Bells Are Ringing, and the cast album follows in December. Sonny Rollins records it in 1957 and Oscar Peterson's trio in 1959.
1960s
Dean Martin and Judy Holliday sing it in the 1960 film of Bells Are Ringing, and Martin records it that year with Nelson Riddle. Lee Morgan's quintet, with Art Blakey on drums, records it in October 1960.
1970s
Oscar Peterson leads a jam session at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival with Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, and the song runs nearly ten minutes.
1980s
Tommy Flanagan's trio records it in New York in 1981. Keith Jarrett's trio plays it live in Cologne in October 1989, and the take runs just over ten minutes.
1990s
Joshua Redman's quartet records it live at New York's Village Vanguard in March 1995, in a version of nearly nine minutes.
2010s
Tom Rainey's quintet records it in Brooklyn in February 2013 for the album Obbligato, released by Intakt in 2014. The album also holds a second take, Just in Time Again.
More great versions
5 more, from 1962 to 1995. Tap a cover to play it here.
1960sSarah Vaughan with Barney Kessel and Joe Comfort1962 · Vocal
Sarah Vaughan sings it with only a guitar and a double bass, played by Barney Kessel and Joe Comfort. It is the first track on her 1962 Roulette album Sarah + 2.
Booker Ervin led a quintet with Frank Strozier on alto saxophone at the Van Gelder Studio on June 19, 1963. Prestige put out two takes: a short one on a single and a long one on the album Exultation!.
Oscar Peterson led a jam session at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 14, 1977, with Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. The track runs nearly ten minutes.
“Just in Time (live)”, Spirit of the Moment: Live at the Village Vanguard
Joshua Redman's quartet recorded it live at the Village Vanguard in New York during a run from March 21 to 26, 1995, and Warner Bros. issued it on Spirit of the Moment.
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
32 barsA · B form
B♭ → G m → G7, C7, F7 and B♭7 in turn → E♭ → G m → B♭key centers
A16 bars
B16 bars
B♭
G m
G7, C7, F7 and B♭7 in turn
E♭
G m
B♭
The iReal Pro chart runs 32 in , in two parts of 16 bars. A opens with two bars of , then and lean toward . Bars 5 to 12 pass through , , and , two bars each, and every pulls toward the next. Bars 13 and 14 sit on , bar 15 is , and bar 16 returns to Am7♭5 and D7♭9, which leads into B. B starts in G minor with , and , then plays C7 with a in bar 20. Bars 21 and 22 are . Bars 23 and 24 are and G7, bars 25 and 26 are C7 and F7, and bars 27 and 28 are and Gm7. Bar 29 is C7, bar 30 is and F7, bar 31 is B♭6, and bar 32 is Cm7 and F7, which sends the tune back to the top.