Sammy Fain, music · Lew Brown, lyrics · Sung by Virginia Verrill in the film Vogues of 1938
That Old Feeling
Sammy Fain wrote the music and Lew Brown the words for the 1937 film Vogues of 1938. Shep Fields's 1937 record reached number one, according to JazzStandards.com, and the song earned an Oscar nomination. Hear it sung by Chet Baker and Louis Armstrong, and played by Erroll Garner, Stan Getz and Art Blakey.
Listen in this order
The path starts with the 1937 dance-band hit and moves to two singers with small groups, a solo pianist and two saxophonists. It ends with a guitar and flute group, a live band led by a drummer and a quartet with alto saxophone and guitar.
1930sShep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra1937
1940s
1950sErroll Garner1955
Chet Baker Quartet1956 · Vocal
Louis Armstrong with Oscar Peterson Quartet1957 · Vocal
Stan Getz - Gerry Mulligan Quintet1957 · Bebop
1960sKenny Burrell Quartet1960
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers1962 · Post-bop
Paul Desmond - Jim Hall Quartet1963
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Hear the 1937 hit
Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra · 1937
Bluebird B-7066
Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra recorded it in New York on July 2, 1937, with Bobby Goday singing, and Bluebird issued it as B-7066. According to JazzStandards.com, it ran fourteen weeks on the charts that year, four of them at number one.
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Listen for
A dance orchestra plays the tune with a singer, Bobby Goday, in under two and a half minutes. Fields's band was known for a rippling sound made by blowing through a straw into a glass of water.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first six slowly, one per bar: , C6, , , with A7♭9 in the same bar, then Dm7. Both halves of the tune open with these six bars. Smaller version: play only C6 and A7♭9 back and forth to hear the two moods.
Chet Baker recorded it with his quartet at the Forum Theatre in Los Angeles on July 23, 1956. Pacific Jazz put it out that year as a single and on the LP Chet Baker Sings.
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Listen for
Chet Baker sings the tune and the quartet plays behind him, with Russ Freeman on piano. The whole track lasts about three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Hum or sing the melody and play one per underneath for the first sixteen bars: the six opening bars, then , , , , , , for two bars, and Dm7♭5 and G7 to finish (bar 5 holds two chords). Smaller version: sing only the six opening bars.
Louis Armstrong with Oscar Peterson Quartet · 1957 · Vocal
Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson
Louis Armstrong recorded it with the Oscar Peterson Quartet in Chicago on October 14, 1957, for Verve, and it came out on Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson in 1959. According to JazzStandards.com, Armstrong and Peterson also play it in the 1997 film That Old Feeling.
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Listen for
Louis Armstrong leads, with Oscar Peterson's piano, Herb Ellis's guitar, Ray Brown's bass and Louis Bellson's drums behind him. The track lasts under three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the second half, 17 to 32, from the chart. It opens like the first half, then turns at bar 23 to and where the first half went to and .
Erroll Garner recorded it alone at the piano at Fine Sound in New York on March 14, 1955. Mercury issued it that year on the album Solitaire.
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Listen for
Garner plays by himself for more than five minutes, with no band behind him. Listen for how one pair of hands covers the tune and the together.
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Play the first sixteen as a solo: melody in the right hand and one per bar in the left (bar 5 holds two chords). Smaller version: melody and chords for the six opening bars only.
Stan Getz and Gerry Mulligan recorded it in Los Angeles on October 12, 1957, with Lou Levy, Ray Brown and Stan Levey, for the Verve album Getz Meets Mulligan in Hi-Fi.
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Listen for
Two saxophones, played by Getz and Mulligan, lead over a of piano, bass and drums. At about six minutes it is the longest track on the path so far.
Try it on your instrument
Play just the bass note of each , one per , through the first sixteen bars: C, C, E, A, D then A, D, D, G, A, E, E, A, D, D, D, G. Soloing over takes more experience than this page assumes, so start with the bass notes and the melody.
Kenny Burrell recorded it in New York on October 18, 1960, with Bobby Jaspar on flute, bassist Wendell Marshall and drummer Bobby Donaldson. Columbia issued it on Weaver of Dreams in 1961.
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A guitar and a flute lead, with bass and drums behind them, and the track lasts under three and a half minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the six opening as short guitar-style hits, two per bar, and add the melody on top if you can. Smaller version: two hits on , then two on , and stop.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers · 1962 · Post-bop
3 Blind Mice
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers played it live at the Renaissance in Hollywood on March 18, 1962, with Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton and Jymie Merritt. It came out on the United Artists album 3 Blind Mice.
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Listen for
Three horns, trumpet, trombone and tenor saxophone, play with piano, bass and Blakey's drums in a club. The track runs over six minutes, the longest on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the six opening with a metronome, one per bar, starting slowly and nudging the speed up. Improvising a solo over the whole tune takes more experience than this page assumes; a smaller version is to play the melody at the faster speed.
Paul Desmond recorded it with guitarist Jim Hall, bassist Gene Wright and drummer Connie Kay at Webster Hall in New York on June 25, 1963. RCA Victor issued it on the album Easy Living.
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Listen for
Paul Desmond's alto saxophone and Jim Hall's guitar lead the quartet, with bass and drums behind them. The track lasts nearly six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play all 32 at a slow walking pace: melody plus one per bar (bars 5, 21 and 31 hold two chords). Smaller version: play only the first half, bars 1 to 16.
Sammy Fain and Lew Brown write the song for the 1937 film Vogues of 1938, and Shep Fields's orchestra records it in New York that July for Bluebird.
1950s
Erroll Garner plays it alone at the piano in 1955. Chet Baker sings it in 1956, and Louis Armstrong records it in 1957 with Oscar Peterson's quartet.
1960s
Frank Sinatra sings it on Nice 'n' Easy in 1960. Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers play it live in Hollywood in 1962, and Paul Desmond records it with Jim Hall in 1963.
2000s
Dave Brubeck plays it alone at the piano for his Telarc album One Alone, released in 2000.
2010s
Bob Dylan sings it on Triplicate, his Columbia album released on March 31, 2017.
More great versions
6 more, from 1955 to 2017. Tap a cover to play it here.
Zoot Sims recorded it in Chicago on October 12, 1956, with pianist John Williams, bassist Knobby Totah and drummer Gus Johnson. The session was issued on Argo and later on an album named That Old Feeling.
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
32 barsA · B form
C majorkey centers
A16 bars
B16 bars
C
The tune is 32 in two 16-bar halves, A and B, in . Both halves open with the same six bars: for two bars, , , with A7♭9 in one bar, and Dm7. A goes on with , , , , Em7♭5, , for two bars, and Dm7♭5 and G7. B parts from A at bar 7 of the half, bar 23 overall: , , Em7♭5, A7♭9, Dm7 and Fm6, then , A7, Dm7 with G7 in one bar, and C6 to finish.