Neil Moret, music · Richard A. Whiting, lyrics · Recorded by Gene Austin, 1928
She's Funny That Way
Neil Moret wrote the tune, Richard A. Whiting the words, and Gene Austin recorded it in 1928. A man sings the original, and women often change the title to "He's Funny That Way". Hear it with Billie Holiday in 1937, Art Tatum in 1954, and Lester Young and Harry Edison in 1955.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Gene Austin's 1928 record and follows the song through two Billie Holiday versions and a Coleman Hawkins band record. Then come a Paris band led by Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum alone at the piano, a long Lester Young record and a 1998 vocal by Kurt Elling.
1940sBillie Holiday and the Eddie Heywood Trio1944
1950sDizzy Gillespie1952 · Bebop
Art Tatum1954
Lester Young and Harry Edison1955 · Swing
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990sKurt Elling1998
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Hear the song as first recorded
Gene Austin · 1928
Victor 78 rpm single
Gene Austin recorded it for Victor in New York on November 7, 1928, with Nat Shilkret conducting. Victor issued it on the back of "Sonny Boy" that December.
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Listen for
Listen for Austin's voice at the front and a small studio band around it, with clarinets and a cornet. The words speak from a man's side, which later singers often changed.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of the as , two chords per bar where the chart has two: , E♭maj7 B♭7♯5, E♭maj7 , . Smaller version: play E♭ for three bars, then C7 in bar 4.
Billie Holiday recorded it in New York on September 13, 1937, under the title "He's Funny That Way". Lester Young plays tenor saxophone and Buck Clayton trumpet in the band.
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Listen for
Listen for Billie Holiday's voice up front, and for the tenor saxophone of Lester Young and the trumpet of Buck Clayton in the band. The whole record runs under three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 of the as : for one bar, for one bar, then F7 and . Smaller version: play only F7 and D♭7, one bar each.
“(I Got a Woman Crazy for Me) She's Funny That Way”, Bluebird 78 rpm single
Coleman Hawkins recorded it with his orchestra in New York on October 11, 1939, with Thelma Carpenter singing. Bluebird issued it as B-10477.
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Listen for
Listen for Thelma Carpenter's voice with a full dance band behind her, and for Coleman Hawkins's tenor saxophone among the horns. The record runs a little over three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first half of the , 17 to 20, as : , , , . Smaller version: play only and D♭7 for two bars, then E♭ for two.
Billie Holiday recorded it again for Commodore in New York on April 8, 1944, with the Eddie Heywood Trio. Her words differ from the 1937 record.
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Listen for
Listen for Eddie Heywood's piano with only bass and drums beside it. The record runs about forty seconds longer than the 1937 one.
Try it on your instrument
Play both endings of the as . First ending: , then . Second ending: B♭7, then E♭6 . Smaller version: play F7 for the first ending and E♭ for the second.
Dizzy Gillespie recorded it at the Schola Cantorum in Paris on April 11, 1952, with Don Byas on tenor saxophone. Vogue issued it in France that year, and Blue Note put it on Horn of Plenty in 1953.
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Listen for
Listen for Gillespie's trumpet, with Don Byas's tenor saxophone and Hubert Fol's alto saxophone in the band. The record runs just under four minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the second half of the , 21 to 24, as : , , , . Smaller version: play only the single notes A♭, G, C, F, one per bar.
Art Tatum recorded it alone at the piano at Radio Recorders in Hollywood in 1954, for the producer Norman Granz. It came out on the Pablo series The Art Tatum Solo Masterpieces.
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Listen for
Listen for the piano alone, with no band at all. The record runs just under four minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the slowly, one per , the first chord of each bar: , E♭maj7, E♭maj7, , , , , . Smaller version: play only bars 5 to 8, F7, D♭7, Cm7, Fm7.
Lester Young and Harry Edison recorded it at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on November 1, 1955, with Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich. Norgran released it on Pres and Sweets in 1956.
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Listen for
Listen for Young's tenor saxophone and Edison's trumpet over the piano, guitar, bass and drums. At more than eight minutes it is the longest record on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last , 25 to 32, as : twice, E♭maj7 , , , , then and E♭6. Smaller version: play only E♭, then F7 and D♭7, and finish on E♭.
Kurt Elling recorded it for his 1998 Blue Note album This Time It's Love in Chicago, with Laurence Hobgood on piano. The Penguin Guide to Jazz describes his version as new words written to Lester Young's solo on the song.
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Listen for
Listen for Elling singing a line that moves like an instrumental solo, with Laurence Hobgood's piano beside him. Then go back to the 1955 record to hear Lester Young play the song.
Try it on your instrument
Write your own words for the first four of the and sing them over , E♭maj7, E♭maj7, . Smaller version: speak your words in rhythm over one held E♭ .
Neil Moret and Richard A. Whiting write the song in 1928, and Gene Austin records it for Victor that November. Jimmie Noone's Chicago band records it for Vocalion in 1929.
1930s
Billie Holiday records it in 1937 as "He's Funny That Way", with Lester Young and Buck Clayton in the band. Coleman Hawkins's orchestra records it in 1939 with Thelma Carpenter singing.
1940s
Billie Holiday records it again in 1944 with the Eddie Heywood Trio, using different words. In 1946 Lester Young records it for Aladdin in Los Angeles.
1950s
Dizzy Gillespie records it in Paris in 1952, and Art Tatum plays it alone at the piano in 1954. In 1955 Lester Young and Harry Edison stretch it past eight minutes.
1960s
Frank Sinatra sings it on Nice 'n' Easy in 1960, with Nelson Riddle conducting. Ella Fitzgerald records it for her 1962 album with Riddle.
1970s
Count Basie leads an all-star jam at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival, and Joe Pass plays it on guitar there the next day. Zoot Sims records it with a quintet in Los Angeles in 1979.
1990s
Kurt Elling records it in 1998 for Blue Note, with Laurence Hobgood on piano.
More great versions
7 more, from 1929 to 1979. Tap a cover to play it here.
1920sJimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra1929
1930s
1940sLester Young1946
1950s
1960sFrank Sinatra1960 · Big band
Ella Fitzgerald1962 · Vocal
1970sCount Basie Jam1977
Joe Pass1977 · Swing
Zoot Sims Quintet1979 · Swing
Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra
1929
Vocalion 78 rpm single
Jimmie Noone led his Apex Club band, a Chicago group, on a Vocalion record of the song in 1929.
Ella Fitzgerald sang it on Ella Swings Gently with Nelson, an album recorded between November 1961 and April 1962 with Nelson Riddle conducting the orchestra.
Count Basie led an all-star jam at the Montreux Jazz Festival on July 14, 1977, with Roy Eldridge, Benny Carter and Zoot Sims. Pablo released the set as Basie Jam: Montreux '77.
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
E♭ majorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · A form
E♭ majorkey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
E♭
Thirty-two in four sections of eight, , all in E♭. Each starts with in bars 1 and 2, then E♭maj7 in bar 3 and in bar 4. Bar 5 is and bar 6 is . The first time through, bars 7 and 8 are F7 and , which lead back to the top; the second time, they are B♭7 and E♭6 , which lead into the . The bridge, bars 17 to 24, goes , D♭7, E♭6 B♭7 and E♭maj7 E♭7, then A♭m6 D♭7, followed by C7, Cm7 F7 and Fm7 B♭7 back to the last A. The last A repeats the first, with E♭6 B♭7 and E♭6 as its ending. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some chords differently.