Buddy Johnson, music and lyrics · Introduced by Ella Johnson with Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra, 1945
Since I Fell for You
Buddy Johnson wrote this slow blues ballad in 1945, and his sister Ella Johnson sang it first. Annie Laurie's 1947 record and Lenny Welch's 1963 hit made it a standard for singers and soloists alike. Hear it from Ella Johnson, Louis Armstrong's All Stars, Lee Morgan, Stanley Turrentine and the Ramsey Lewis Trio.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Ella Johnson's 1945 record and Annie Laurie's 1947 version, then hears Louis Armstrong's All Stars live, two horns and Lenny Welch's 1963 hit. It ends with a piano trio in a club and a 1986 version with Al Jarreau singing.
1960sStanley Turrentine with The Three Sounds1960 · Cool jazz
Lenny Welch1963
The Ramsey Lewis Trio1965 · Soul jazz
1970s
1980sBob James and David Sanborn1986 · Smooth jazz
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Learn the song
Buddy Johnson and His Orchestra (vocal Ella Johnson) · 1945
Decca 78 rpm single
Buddy Johnson's band recorded it for Decca in New York on November 7, 1945, with his sister Ella Johnson singing. The record opens with a for alto saxophone before the song itself begins.
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Listen for
Listen for the alto saxophone solo in the opening , then for Ella Johnson's plain, steady singing with trumpet asides behind her.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four at a slow pace, two to the bar: , F m7 , E♭maj7 C7♭9, F m7 , and hum the tune over them. Smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar.
“Since I Fell for You (Live at Symphony Hall)”, Satchmo at Symphony Hall
The All Stars played this at Symphony Hall in Boston on November 30, 1947, with Velma Middleton singing. The concert was recorded on tape and came out on Decca as Satchmo at Symphony Hall.
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Listen for
Listen for Velma Middleton's voice with a small band behind her, and for the sound of the live hall around them.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four with a friend. One of you plays the , F m7 , E♭maj7 C7♭9, F m7 , and the other hums the tune. Smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar.
Morgan recorded it for Blue Note on November 18, 1957, at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, with Sonny Clark, Doug Watkins and Art Taylor. It came out on the album Candy in 1958.
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Listen for
Listen for the trumpet playing the tune with no words, backed by piano, bass and drums. The record runs over five minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the as long : , , , then E♭7, then A♭7, D♭7, and F m7 . Smaller version: play only the roots A♭, D♭, E♭, B♭, A♭, D♭, E♭, F.
Turrentine recorded it with the Three Sounds on December 16, 1960, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Blue Note issued it on the album Blue Hour in 1961.
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Listen for
Listen for the tenor saxophone with a piano trio behind it. At almost nine minutes it is the longest version on this path.
Try it on your instrument
Improvising over the takes practice. Try it on the first four : loop , F m7 , E♭maj7 C7♭9, F m7 and play three or four notes from over each bar. Smaller version: play the tune and hold one note per chord.
Welch recorded it for Cadence at Bell Sound Studios on August 13, 1963. The single reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 that December and includes an opening that the versions Welch knew had left out.
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Listen for
Listen for the short opening part Welch sings before the main song begins, then for how plainly he sings the song itself.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last two of the tune: , then , and notice how they point back to the start. Smaller version: play only the roots E♭, C, F, B♭.
The Ramsey Lewis Trio recorded this live at the Bohemian Caverns in Washington, D.C., between May 13 and 15, 1965. It is on the Argo album The In Crowd, released that July.
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Listen for
Listen for the club audience around the trio and for Lewis's piano carrying the tune with bass and drums behind him.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four as a trio would, a in each hand on a steady count of four: , F m7 , E♭maj7 C7♭9, F m7 . Smaller version: play only the first chord of each bar.
Bob James and David Sanborn recorded it for their 1986 Warner Bros. album Double Vision, with Al Jarreau singing. The album was made at Clinton and Unique studios in New York.
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Listen for
Listen for Al Jarreau's voice and David Sanborn's alto saxophone over Bob James's keyboards, a long way from the 1945 big band.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four in a smooth, even groove, steady eighth notes in the right hand: , F m7 , E♭maj7 C7♭9, F m7 . Smaller version: play the same in plain quarter notes.
Buddy Johnson writes it in 1945, and his orchestra records it that November with his sister Ella Johnson singing. Annie Laurie records it in New Orleans in 1947, the year Louis Armstrong's All Stars play it in Boston.
1950s
Lee Morgan's quartet records it as a trumpet feature in 1957. In 1958 Kenny Dorham sings it himself and also plays trumpet on it.
1960s
Stanley Turrentine stretches it to almost nine minutes in 1960. Lenny Welch's 1963 single reaches number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and the Ramsey Lewis Trio plays it live in 1965.
1980s
Bob James and David Sanborn record it in 1986 for their album Double Vision, with Al Jarreau singing.
1990s
Etta Jones records a whole album of Buddy Johnson songs in December 1997 with Houston Person on tenor saxophone, and this song is on it.
More great versions
3 more, from 1947 to 1965. Tap a cover to play it here.
1940sDinah Washington with the Rudy Martin Trio1947
1950sKenny Dorham1958
1960sMose Allison1965 · Post-bop
Dinah Washington with the Rudy Martin Trio
1947
Mercury single
Dinah Washington recorded it with the Rudy Martin Trio in 1947, the same year as Annie Laurie's record. The track is on The Fabulous Miss D!, a set of her singles from 1943 to 1953.
Trumpeter Kenny Dorham sings and plays on this track from This Is the Moment!, recorded in New York in July and August 1958. Curtis Fuller, Cedar Walton, Sam Jones and Charlie Persip play with him.
Mose Allison played it live at The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California, during the October 1965 run recorded for Mose Alive!. Atlantic released the album in 1966.
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 A opens with and F m7 , repeats that pair, then plays F m7 in bar 4. Bar 5 is and bar 6 is . Bars 7 and 8 differ: the first time they are C7♭9 and F7 B♭7, which lead back to the top; the second time they are E♭maj7 A♭7 and , which lead into the . The bridge, bars 17 to 24, is A♭7, , E♭7 and B♭m7 E♭7, then A♭7, D♭7, E♭maj7 C7♭9 and F m7 B♭7. The last A repeats the first six bars and ends on C7♭9 and F7 B♭7. The 1945 Decca record adds a before the song begins. These follow the iReal Pro chart; other lead sheets may spell some chords differently.