Jazz Changes

Songs from 1932 to 1959

Richard Rodgers

Richard Rodgers wrote these ten songs with Lorenz Hart in the 1930s and with Oscar Hammerstein II in 1945 and 1959. Nearly all come from Broadway shows and films, among them Love Me Tonight, Jumbo, Babes in Arms, State Fair and The Sound of Music. Below, each decade follows what musicians do with them, from Benny Goodman's orchestra in the 1930s to John Coltrane's soprano saxophone and Brad Mehldau at the piano.

Through the years

  1. 1930s

    Rodgers and Hart write eight of these songs in the 1930s, most for Broadway shows or films. Jeanette MacDonald sings Lover in the 1932 film Love Me Tonight. With Benny Goodman's orchestra, Helen Ward sings Blue Moon in 1935, Martha Tilton records This Can't Be Love in 1938, and Louise Tobin records I Didn't Know What Time It Was in 1939.

    Benny Goodman This Can't Be Love · 1938Benny Goodman I Didn't Know What Time It Was · 1939
  2. 1940s

    Rodgers and Hammerstein write It Might As Well Be Spring for the 1945 film State Fair, and it wins the Oscar for best song. Jazz players start on the older songs: Gene Krupa's band records Lover fast in 1945, George Shearing's trio plays Have You Met Miss Jones in New York in 1947, and Charlie Parker plays I Didn't Know What Time It Was in 1949 with strings, oboe and harp.

    Gene Krupa Lover · 1945George Shearing Have You Met Miss Jones · 1947Charlie Parker with Strings I Didn't Know What Time It Was · 1949
  3. 1950s

    Singers and small groups both take Rodgers up. Sarah Vaughan sings It Might As Well Be Spring with Miles Davis in 1950, Ella Fitzgerald records her Rodgers and Hart Song Book in 1956, and Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone sing too. Chet Baker sings My Funny Valentine for the first time in 1954, Max Roach plays Lover as a waltz in 1957, and John Coltrane takes it very fast in 1958. My Favorite Things arrives in The Sound of Music in November 1959.

    Red Norvo Trio Have You Met Miss Jones · 1950Sarah Vaughan It Might As Well Be Spring · 1950Wynton Kelly Blue Moon · 1951Billie Holiday Blue Moon · 1952Oscar Peterson Blue Moon · 1952Peggy Lee with Gordon Jenkins Lover · 1952Art Tatum Have You Met Miss Jones · 1953Stan Getz Quintet Have You Met Miss Jones · 1953
    35 more
    Oscar Peterson Trio It Might As Well Be Spring · 1953Frank Sinatra Little Girl Blue · 1953Frank Sinatra My Funny Valentine · 1953Gerry Mulligan Quartet My Funny Valentine · 1953Oscar Peterson Trio This Can't Be Love · 1953Chet Baker My Funny Valentine · 1954The Lionel Hampton Quartet This Can't Be Love · 1954Clifford Brown Blue Moon · 1955The Dave Brubeck Quartet Little Girl Blue · 1955The Dave Brubeck Quartet Lover · 1955Ella Fitzgerald Blue Moon · 1956Ella Fitzgerald Have You Met Miss Jones · 1956Lester Young and the Jazz Giants I Didn't Know What Time It Was · 1956The Bud Powell Trio I Didn't Know What Time It Was · 1956The Red Garland Trio Little Girl Blue · 1956Ella Fitzgerald Little Girl Blue · 1956Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman Lover · 1956Ella Fitzgerald My Romance · 1956The Red Garland Trio My Romance · 1956Ella Fitzgerald with Buddy Bregman This Can't Be Love · 1956Billie Holiday I Didn't Know What Time It Was · 1957Sonny Clark Trio I Didn't Know What Time It Was · 1957Nina Simone Little Girl Blue · 1957Max Roach Quintet Lover · 1957Stan Getz and J.J. Johnson My Funny Valentine · 1957Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan This Can't Be Love · 1957Ahmad Jamal Trio It Might As Well Be Spring · 1958Gene Ammons' All Stars It Might As Well Be Spring · 1958Red Garland Quartet It Might As Well Be Spring · 1958John Coltrane Lover · 1958Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Lover · 1958Ahmad Jamal Trio This Can't Be Love · 1958The Red Garland Trio This Can't Be Love · 1958Mary Martin and Patricia Neway My Favorite Things · 1959Ben Webster with the Oscar Peterson Trio This Can't Be Love · 1959
  4. 1960s

    John Coltrane's 1960 recording of My Favorite Things, his first on soprano saxophone, makes the song a jazz standard, and his group stretches it to about twenty minutes by 1966. Bill Evans plays Rodgers songs with his trio and in a duo with Jim Hall, Miles Davis's quintet plays My Funny Valentine for fifteen minutes in 1964, and McCoy Tyner, Art Blakey and Stan Getz with Astrud Gilberto also record them.

    John Coltrane My Favorite Things · 1960Gene Ammons My Romance · 1960Frank Sinatra It Might As Well Be Spring · 1961Bill Evans Trio My Romance · 1961Art Blakey Blue Moon · 1962McCoy Tyner Trio Have You Met Miss Jones · 1962Bill Evans Trio It Might As Well Be Spring · 1962Bill Evans and Jim Hall My Funny Valentine · 1962
    12 more
    Ben Webster and Harry "Sweets" Edison My Romance · 1962Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers I Didn't Know What Time It Was · 1963John Coltrane Quartet My Favorite Things · 1963Wes Montgomery My Romance · 1963The Oscar Peterson Trio Have You Met Miss Jones · 1964The New Stan Getz Quartet featuring Astrud Gilberto It Might As Well Be Spring · 1964Grant Green My Favorite Things · 1964Miles Davis Quintet My Funny Valentine · 1964The Dave Brubeck Quartet My Favorite Things · 1965John Coltrane My Favorite Things · 1966McCoy Tyner Quartet I Didn't Know What Time It Was · 1968Janis Joplin Little Girl Blue · 1969
  5. 1970s

    McCoy Tyner plays My Favorite Things alone at the piano in Tokyo in 1972, twelve years after he played on Coltrane's recording. Joe Pass plays Have You Met Miss Jones alone on guitar in Los Angeles in 1973. In 1974 Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker, who recorded My Funny Valentine as a quartet in the early 1950s, play it again at Carnegie Hall with a larger band.

    McCoy Tyner My Favorite Things · 1972Joe Pass Have You Met Miss Jones · 1973
  6. 1980s

    Kenny Garrett records Lover with trumpeter Woody Shaw in December 1984, and Chet Baker and Paul Bley play Little Girl Blue as a trumpet and piano duet in Copenhagen in 1985. Keith Jarrett's trio plays My Funny Valentine in Munich in 1986 and Little Girl Blue in Oslo in 1989, and Cassandra Wilson sings I Didn't Know What Time It Was in 1988.

    Kenny Garrett Quintet Lover · 1984Chet Baker & Paul Bley Little Girl Blue · 1985Keith Jarrett Trio My Funny Valentine · 1986Keith Jarrett Trio Little Girl Blue · 1989
  7. 1990s

    My Romance has a busy 1994: Keith Jarrett's trio plays it live at the Blue Note in New York in June, and Johnny Griffin records it on tenor saxophone in December. Joe Pass plays Blue Moon alone on acoustic guitar in 1992, Jacky Terrasson plays My Funny Valentine with a piano trio, and Brad Mehldau opens his 1995 album Introducing Brad Mehldau with It Might As Well Be Spring.

    Joe Pass Blue Moon · 1992Johnny Griffin My Romance · 1994Keith Jarrett Trio My Romance · 1994
  8. 2000s

    Brad Mehldau plays My Favorite Things alone at a French festival in 2006, a recording that comes out in 2011. Trombonist Steve Davis plays Have You Met Miss Jones in 2009 with pianist Hank Jones and vibraphonist Steve Nelson, and Stacey Kent sings This Can't Be Love on In Love Again, an album of Richard Rodgers songs.

    Brad Mehldau My Favorite Things · 2006
  9. 2010s

    Ahmad Jamal brings his quartet to Blue Moon in 2011, with Herlin Riley on drums and Manolo Badrena on percussion. Cécile McLorin Salvant sings I Didn't Know What Time It Was on her 2013 album WomanChild with a piano trio behind her, and Brad Mehldau plays My Favorite Things for twelve minutes at a solo concert in 2010.

    Ahmad Jamal Blue Moon · 2011
  10. 2020s

    Pianist Emmet Cohen records My Funny Valentine in 2025 with Ron Carter on bass and George Coleman on tenor saxophone, 88 years after Mitzi Green introduces it in the 1937 Broadway musical Babes in Arms.

    Emmet Cohen with Ron Carter and George Coleman My Funny Valentine · 2025

The tunes