Burton Lane, music · E. Y. Harburg, lyrics · Introduced by Ella Logan and Donald Richards in Finian's Rainbow, 1947
Old Devil Moon
Burton Lane wrote the music and E. Y. Harburg the words for the 1947 Broadway show Finian's Rainbow. It has no and runs 48 instead of the usual 32. Hear it from the 1947 cast, Gene Krupa, Frank Sinatra, Sonny Rollins and McCoy Tyner's trio.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the Broadway cast and a 1947 dance-band hit, then goes to a trumpet quartet and Sinatra with an orchestra. It continues with a saxophone trio live in New York, a vibraphone with a big band, and two piano trios.
Ella Logan and Donald Richards sing it as Sharon and Woody in Finian's Rainbow, which opened on Broadway on January 10, 1947. The cast recorded it at Liederkranz Hall in New York in sessions between March 30 and April 10, 1947, and Columbia issued the album as a set of 78 rpm discs.
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Two singers, Ella Logan and Donald Richards, share the song, with the show orchestra behind them. The track runs 3 minutes 21 seconds.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first eight slowly, one per bar: , , F6, E♭6, F6, E♭6, , . Then play or hum the melody over them. Smaller version: play only F6 and E♭6, one bar each, until the rocking feels steady.
Gene Krupa and His Orchestra (vocal Carolyn Grey) · 1947 · Big band, Swing
“That Old Devil Moon”, Hop, Skip And Jump 1946, Vol. 3
Gene Krupa's orchestra recorded it in New York in March 1947, with singer Carolyn Grey and an arrangement by George Williams. According to JazzStandards.com, the record spent a week on the Billboard chart that year and peaked at number 21.
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Carolyn Grey sings with Krupa's full band behind her. The track runs 3 minutes 16 seconds.
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Play 9 to 12: , B♭maj7, , , one per bar, and hum the melody over them. Smaller version: play only B♭m7 and E♭7, then go back to .
Miles Davis recorded it with Horace Silver, Percy Heath and Art Blakey at Beltone Studios in New York on March 15, 1954. Prestige issued it that year, and it later appeared on the 1956 album Blue Haze.
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Davis plays trumpet with Silver's piano, Heath's bass and Blakey's drums behind him. The record is brief, at 3 minutes 24 seconds.
Try it on your instrument
Play 9 to 16: , B♭maj7, , , , , , . Smaller version: play only the last four bars, the two-chord bars into F6.
Frank Sinatra recorded it on January 16, 1956 at Capitol Studio A in Hollywood, with arrangements by Nelson Riddle. It is the sixth track on Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, released in March 1956.
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Sinatra sings with Riddle's orchestra behind him. At 3 minutes 56 seconds it runs longer than the three records before it.
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Play 17 to 24, the contrast section: , , then for two bars, then , , , . Smaller version: play only Dmaj7 for two bars, then Dm7 and G7, and hear how the sound shifts away from F and back.
Sonny Rollins played it at the Village Vanguard in New York on the evening of November 3, 1957, with Wilbur Ware on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. Rudy Van Gelder recorded the night, and Blue Note released the album in 1958.
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Rollins plays tenor saxophone with only bass and drums behind him. The track runs 7 minutes 43 seconds.
Try it on your instrument
Soloing is the harder part. The first eight only alternate and , so try improvising there with notes from . Smaller version: play just the melody over those two .
Milt Jackson recorded it with an orchestra at Plaza Sound Studios in New York in sessions on June 19, June 20 and July 5, 1962. Ernie Wilkins arranged and conducted, and Riverside issued it on Big Bags.
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Jackson plays vibraphone in front of a band of trumpets, trombones and saxophones. At 3 minutes 5 seconds it is the shortest version on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last eight , the ending: , , F6, E♭6, then , , F6, E♭6. Smaller version: play only Am7 D7 and Gm7 C7, two to a bar.
McCoy Tyner recorded it with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Roy Haynes at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on November 14, 1962. Impulse! released it on Reaching Fourth in 1963.
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Tyner plays piano with Grimes on bass and Haynes on drums. At 7 minutes 30 seconds it is the longest studio version on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Keep your left hand rocking between and for eight while your right hand plays the melody. Smaller version: play only the F6 and E♭6 pattern, one bar each, until it runs by itself.
Tommy Flanagan recorded it with bassist George Mraz and drummer Al Foster at RCA Studios in New York on June 3, 1981. It is one of the standards on his Progressive album The Magnificent Tommy Flanagan.
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Flanagan's piano leads, with Mraz on bass and Foster on drums. At 6 minutes 5 seconds it sits between the three-minute records and the long Rollins and Tyner tracks.
Try it on your instrument
Count the whole 48 out loud: 16 bars of the first section, 8 of the contrast, the first section again for 16, then the 8-bar ending. Smaller version: play only the first 16 bars and stop.
The song arrives in Finian's Rainbow, which opens on Broadway on January 10, 1947, with Ella Logan and Donald Richards singing it. Gene Krupa's orchestra, with singer Carolyn Grey, charts with it the same year.
1950s
Miles Davis plays it with a quartet in 1954, and Frank Sinatra sings it with Nelson Riddle's orchestra in 1956. Sonny Rollins plays it live at the Village Vanguard in 1957.
1960s
Mel Tormé sings it with Marty Paich's arrangement in 1960. Milt Jackson fronts a big band on it in 1962, and McCoy Tyner's trio records it that November.
1970s
George Benson and Joe Farrell give it more than nine minutes on their 1976 CTI album, with flute and guitar out front.
1980s
Tommy Flanagan's trio records it in New York in June 1981 for his Progressive album The Magnificent Tommy Flanagan.
More great versions
6 more, from 1957 to 1976. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sAnita O'Day with the Oscar Peterson Quartet1957 · Vocal
Jimmy Smith1957 · Bebop
The J.J. Johnson Quintet1957 · Bebop
Chet Baker Quartet1958 · Vocal
1960sMel Tormé with the Marty Paich Orchestra1960 · Vocal
Jimmy Smith recorded it on organ with guitarist Eddie McFadden and drummer Donald Bailey at Manhattan Towers in New York on May 8, 1957, for Plays Pretty Just for You on Blue Note.
Chet Baker recorded it with Kenny Drew, Sam Jones and Philly Joe Jones at Reeves Sound Studios in New York in August 1958, for the Riverside album Chet Baker Sings: It Could Happen to You.
George Benson and Joe Farrell play it for nine minutes on their CTI album Benson & Farrell, released in October 1976. Track 5 has its own , with Sonny Bravo on piano, Gary King on bass and two percussionists.
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
F majorusual key
48 barsA · B · A · C form
F · B♭ · G♭ · Dkeys it moves between
A16 bars
B8 bars
A16 bars
C8 bars
F
B♭
G♭
F
D
F
B♭
G♭
F
The tune runs 48 and has no . The first is 16 bars. It rocks between and for six bars and settles on and in bars 7 and 8. Bars 9 to 12 move to , B♭maj7, and . Bar 13 is and bar 14 is , which pulls back to F6 and E♭6 in bars 15 and 16. The 8-bar starts with F6 and E♭6, then for two bars, then , , and C7. The A section returns for another 16 bars. The 8-bar ending is F6, E♭6, F6, E♭6, then and Gm7 C7, and F6 and E♭6 close the .