Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke, music · Johnny Mercer, lyrics · First recorded by Hampton's orchestra, 1947
Midnight Sun
Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke wrote Midnight Sun in 1947 as an instrumental, and Johnny Mercer later added words. The main part steps down through three , and the middle part moves somewhere new. Hear it with Lionel Hampton's orchestra in 1947, Ella Fitzgerald in 1957 and Abbey Lincoln in 1998.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Lionel Hampton's 1947 instrumental and June Christy's record, the first with words. It moves through Carmen McRae's version with an orchestra, a guitar record, an organ trio, Ella Fitzgerald and an alto saxophone quartet, and ends with Abbey Lincoln's 1998 version.
Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra · 1947 · Bebop, Swing
Midnight Sun
Lionel Hampton's orchestra made the first recording of Midnight Sun in a Los Angeles studio on November 10, 1947, with solos by Hampton and trumpeter Wendell Culley. Decca first issued it on the B-side of a 10-inch single.
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Listen for
This is the song before it had words. Listen for the orchestra carrying the tune and for the solos from Lionel Hampton and trumpeter Wendell Culley.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the : for two bars, then and for two more. If those are new, use Cmaj7, Cm7 and . The same four-bar shape comes back lower down, which is the heart of the section.
June Christy recorded it with Pete Rugolo's orchestra at Capitol's Melrose Studios in Los Angeles. It is the first record of the song with Johnny Mercer's words, and it came out in 1954 on her 10-inch LP Something Cool.
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Listen for
June Christy sings Johnny Mercer's words over Pete Rugolo's orchestra. Listen for how her voice sits in front of the horns.
Try it on your instrument
Hum the tune slowly and take a breath at the end of each phrase, as a singer would. Then play the first four with for two bars and to for two more.
Carmen McRae recorded it in New York in December 1955 with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Ralph Burns. It is on her Decca album Torchy!, and the song stayed in her repertoire afterward.
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Listen for
Carmen McRae sings Mercer's words with Ralph Burns's orchestra. Compare her phrasing with June Christy's: same words, a different voice and band.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first twelve as three groups of four bars: for two bars then to ; for two bars then to ; for two bars then to . Each group repeats the shape one step lower.
Barney Kessel recorded it in Los Angeles in July 1955 with trumpeter Harry Edison and a that included a second guitar. It is on the Contemporary album To Swing or Not to Swing, which came out in 1956.
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Listen for
A small jazz group playing the tune without words: Barney Kessel leads on guitar, with Harry Edison on trumpet, Jimmy Rowles on piano and a second guitarist, Al Hendrickson. Listen for how guitar and trumpet take the place of a voice.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody on your instrument over and for the first four . To go a step further, make up a short phrase of your own over those four bars using only notes of the scale. Improvising over changes needs more practice, so a smaller version is to play the melody twice with a different rhythm the second time.
Jimmy Smith at the Organ: A New Sound... A New Star...
Jimmy Smith recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on February 18, 1956. Blue Note released it on the album A New Sound... A New Star..., Volume 1 and on a single paired with The Preacher.
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Listen for
Jimmy Smith plays organ with Thornel Schwartz on guitar and Bay Perry on drums. The trio is organ, guitar and drums, so listen for how full three players can sound.
Try it on your instrument
Play the tune with the melody in one hand and the root of each in the other. The roots for the first twelve are C, then C and F, B♭, then B♭ and E♭, A♭, then A♭ and D♭.
Ella Fitzgerald recorded it with Frank DeVol and his orchestra at Capitol Studios in Hollywood in October 1957, for the Verve album Like Someone in Love. She recorded the song again in 1964 and in 1978.
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Listen for
Ella Fitzgerald sings the same words as Christy and McRae, backed by Frank DeVol's orchestra. Compare how the three singers shape the same lines.
Try it on your instrument
Play 13 and 14 two ways. The first time through they are , then to , which sends you back to the top. Before the middle part they are Cmaj7 and , then to , which sets up the of E.
Lou Donaldson recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on July 22, 1960, for Blue Note. It first came out in 1980 and gave its name to the LP Midnight Sun.
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Listen for
Lou Donaldson plays alto saxophone with Horace Parlan on piano, George Tucker on bass and Al Harewood on drums. Listen to the saxophone and the piano in turn, with bass and drums underneath.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody for the first four along with the recording, so the saxophone is your guide to where the tune sits. Then play a simplified version of the for twelve bars, one root per two bars: C, F, B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭.
Abbey Lincoln recorded it at Avatar Studios in New York in June 1998 with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, for her album Wholly Earth. The track runs 7:23.
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Listen for
At 7:23 this is the longest track on the path. Listen for Bobby Hutcherson's vibraphone alongside Abbey Lincoln's voice and for how the group stretches the song out.
Try it on your instrument
Find the middle part (the ) in the recording. It starts on and then moves through and back toward C. Play those and see how far they pull away from the of C.
Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke write Midnight Sun in 1947. Hampton's orchestra records it as an instrumental for Decca in Los Angeles on November 10, 1947, with solos by Hampton and trumpeter Wendell Culley.
1950s
Johnny Mercer adds words, and June Christy's 1954 record is the first to use them. Carmen McRae and Ella Fitzgerald sing it, while Barney Kessel on guitar and Jimmy Smith on organ play it without a singer.
1960s
Lou Donaldson records it on alto saxophone in 1960, and that record first comes out in 1980. Sarah Vaughan sings it with a small group in 1963, and Nancy Wilson sings it with Oliver Nelson conducting in 1967.
1970s
Ella Fitzgerald and pianist Oscar Peterson record it on May 19, 1975, at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles, with Ray Brown on bass. It comes out on the Pablo album Ella and Oscar.
1980s
Mel Tormé and pianist George Shearing perform it live in August 1987. Concord Jazz releases the recording in 1988 on the album A Vintage Year.
1990s
Abbey Lincoln records it in New York in June 1998 with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Her version runs 7:23 on the album Wholly Earth.
More great versions
6 more, from 1952 to 1987. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sColeman Hawkins1952 · Easy listening
Duke Ellington's Spacemen1958 · Bebop
1960sSarah Vaughan1963
Nancy Wilson1967 · Soul & R&B
1970sElla Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson1975 · Vocal
Coleman Hawkins played it on tenor saxophone in 1952 with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Danny Mendelsohn. Decca issued it as a single, and it reached an album on The Hawk Talks in 1958.
Sarah Vaughan sang it in June 1963 with a small group that has organ, guitar, tenor saxophone and trumpet, arranged by Gerald Wilson. It came out on the Roulette album Sarah Sings Soulfully.
Ella Fitzgerald and pianist Oscar Peterson recorded it at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles on May 19, 1975, with Ray Brown on bass. It is on the Pablo album Ella and Oscar.
Mel Tormé sings it with George Shearing on piano, Jennifer Leitham on bass and Donny Osborne on drums, in a live recording from August 1987. Concord Jazz released it in 1988 on A Vintage Year.
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
C majorusual key
50 barsA · A · B · A form
C major · B♭ major · A♭ major · E major · D majorkeys it moves between
A14 bars
A14 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A14 bars
C
B♭
A♭
C
C
B♭
A♭
C
E
E
D
C
C
B♭
A♭
C
Fifty in four sections: A of 14 bars, A of 14, B of 8 and a last A of 14. Each A opens in with and in bars 1 and 2, then and in bars 3 and 4. The same shape drops a to for bars 5 to 8 ( and in bars 7 and 8), then a whole step again to for bars 9 to 12 ( and in bars 11 and 12). Bar 13 is Cmaj7. Bar 14 changes: the first time it is and , which sends the music back to the top. The second time, bars 13 and 14 are Cmaj7 with , then and , which lead into the in E. The B section starts on , moves through and to , then Em7 with , Dmaj7, Dm7 with G7, Em7 with E♭7 and Dm7 with , and lands on Cmaj7 for the last A. The last A ends on Cmaj7 and Dm7 with G7, ready for another . These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some chords differently.