Irving Berlin, music and lyrics · Introduced by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton in Annie Get Your Gun, 1946
They Say It's Wonderful
They Say It's Wonderful is Irving Berlin's 1946 love song from the musical Annie Get Your Gun. Its has four 8-bar sections, and its pass through several . You can hear it from Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman, Hampton Hawes and Sonny Rollins.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Frank Sinatra's 1946 record, made before the show opened, and Don Byas's instrumental from the same year. It then moves through Dave Brubeck alone at the piano, Johnny Hartman with John Coltrane, piano trios from Hampton Hawes and Duke Jordan, and ends with Sonny Rollins in 1995 and Chick Corea's trio in 2010.
1940sFrank Sinatra with Axel Stordahl1946 · Big band
Don Byas Quartet1946
1950sDave Brubeck1957
1960sJohn Coltrane and Johnny Hartman1963 · Vocal
Hampton Hawes Trio1968
1970sDuke Jordan Trio1975 · Bebop
1980s
1990sSonny Rollins1995
2000s
2010sChick Corea, Eddie Gomez and Paul Motian2010 · Post-bop
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Hear the song as a 1946 hit record
Frank Sinatra with Axel Stordahl and His Orchestra · 1946 · Big band, Vocal
They Say It's Wonderful / The Girl That I Marry
Frank Sinatra recorded it with Axel Stordahl's orchestra on March 10, 1946. Columbia issued the record in April, a month before Annie Get Your Gun opened on Broadway, and it reached No. 11 on Billboard.
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Frank Sinatra sings with an orchestra of strings, woodwinds, brass and harp, arranged and conducted by Axel Stordahl. The record lasts just over three minutes.
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Play the first four of the : , , , . Smaller version: one per bar, Gm7, , Fmaj7, Am7.
Don Byas recorded it for Savoy on August 21, 1946, with Sanford Gold on piano, Leonard Gaskin on bass and Max Roach on drums. It is an instrumental, issued first as a 78 rpm single.
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Don Byas leads on tenor saxophone, with Sanford Gold's piano, Leonard Gaskin's bass and Max Roach's drums behind him. The whole record is under two and a half minutes.
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Play the last four of the : , , , . Smaller version: one per bar, , , Fmaj7, .
Dave Brubeck played it alone at the piano at his home in Oakland, California, on February 8, 1957. Fantasy put it on the album Dave Brubeck Plays and Plays and Plays..., issued in 1958.
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Brubeck is the only player on this track, so one pianist carries both the melody and the . The track lasts under three minutes.
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Play the first four of the : , , , . Smaller version: one per bar, B♭, E♭, F, A.
Singer Johnny Hartman recorded it with John Coltrane's quartet at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on March 7, 1963. Impulse! released the album that July or August.
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Johnny Hartman sings, with John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. The track runs a little over five minutes, more than twice as long as the 1946 records.
Try it on your instrument
Play the , 25 to 32: , , , , Gm7, , , . Smaller version: the last four bars, Gm7, C7, F6, D7♭9.
Hampton Hawes recorded it with bassist Jimmy Woode and drummer Arthur Taylor at Polydor Studios in Paris on March 10, 1968. It was issued later on the Black Lion CD Blues for Bud.
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Hampton Hawes plays piano, with Jimmy Woode on bass and Arthur Taylor on drums. The track runs a little over three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole first , 1 to 8: , , , , Gm7♭5, C7♭9, Fmaj7, Am7 . Smaller version: one per bar for the first four bars.
Duke Jordan recorded it with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Al Foster on November 18, 1975. SteepleChase released it in 1979 on the album Lover Man.
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Duke Jordan plays piano, with Sam Jones on bass and Al Foster on drums. The track runs just over six minutes.
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Play the two endings of the back to back: then for the first ending, Fmaj7 then for the second. Smaller version: play only the second ending, which leads into the .
Sonny Rollins recorded it at Clinton Recording Studios in New York on August 30, 1995, with pianist Stephen Scott, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Jack DeJohnette. Milestone released it in 1996 on Sonny Rollins + 3.
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Sonny Rollins leads on tenor saxophone, with Stephen Scott on piano, Bob Cranshaw on electric bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The track runs over six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the root note of each of the , bars 17 to 24: B♭, E♭, F, A, A, B, A, A♭. Smaller version: play only bars 17 to 20.
“They Say That Falling In Love Is Wonderful”, Further Explorations
Chick Corea recorded it with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Paul Motian at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York in May 2010. It appears on the album Further Explorations.
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Chick Corea plays piano, with Eddie Gomez on bass and Paul Motian on drums, recorded at the Blue Note club in New York. The track runs over seven minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of the whole tune, one chord per , taking the first chord where a bar has two. Smaller version: play only the first , bars 1 to 8.
Irving Berlin writes the song for Annie Get Your Gun, which opens on Broadway on May 16, 1946. Frank Sinatra records it in March, before the opening, and Don Byas records an instrumental for Savoy in August.
1950s
Buddy DeFranco's quintet, Lennie Niehaus's octet and Dave Brubeck at his own piano all record it, and Quincy Jones conducts a big band in 1959. Sarah Vaughan sings it for Mercury.
1960s
Johnny Hartman sings it with John Coltrane's quartet in March 1963, and Impulse! releases the album that summer. In 1968 Hampton Hawes records it in Paris with a bassist and a drummer.
1970s
Duke Jordan records it with bassist Sam Jones and drummer Al Foster in November 1975. SteepleChase releases it in 1979 on the album Lover Man.
1990s
Sonny Rollins records it at Clinton Recording Studios in New York in August 1995 with pianist Stephen Scott. It comes out in 1996 on Sonny Rollins + 3.
2000s
Kurt Elling sings it live with pianist Laurence Hobgood on Dedicated to You, an album of songs from the Coltrane and Hartman repertoire released in 2009.
2010s
Chick Corea plays it with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Paul Motian at the Blue Note in New York in May 2010. It appears on the album Further Explorations.
More great versions
5 more, from 1954 to 2009. Tap a cover to play it here.
1950sBuddy DeFranco Quintet1954 · Bebop
Lennie Niehaus Octet1955
Sarah Vaughan with the Harold Mooney Orchestra1958
Buddy DeFranco recorded it on clarinet on August 26, 1954, with Sonny Clark on piano and Tal Farlow on guitar. Verve issued it in 1956 on Sweet and Lovely, and the track runs over seven minutes.
Alto saxophonist Lennie Niehaus led an eight-piece band, with Bill Holman, Jimmy Giuffre and Shelly Manne among the players, on February 15, 1955. Contemporary produced the record, and Lester Koenig is credited as producer.
Sarah Vaughan Sings Broadway: Great Songs from Hit Shows
Sarah Vaughan sang it with the Harold Mooney Orchestra on her Mercury album of Broadway songs, Sarah Vaughan Sings Broadway: Great Songs from Hit Shows.
Quincy Jones conducted a big band at Fine Recording Studios on November 9, 1959, with an arrangement by Al Cohn. Art Farmer, Lee Morgan and Phil Woods are among the players, and Mercury put it on The Great Wide World of Quincy Jones.
“They Say It's Wonderful (Live)”, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman
Kurt Elling sang it live with pianist Laurence Hobgood, bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. It is on Dedicated to You, an album of songs from the Coltrane and Hartman repertoire released in 2009.
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
32 barsA · A · B · C form
F major · B♭ major · A minor · G major · G♭ major · G minorkeys it moves between
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
C8 bars
F
B♭
F
A m
G
G♭
F
G m
F
The tune is 32 in four 8-bar sections. In iReal Pro's chart the first six bars of the are , , , , Gm7♭5 and C7♭9. The first time through, bars 7 and 8 are Fmaj7 and Am7 . The second time, they are Fmaj7 and , which leads into the . The B section, bars 17 to 24, plays , , Fmaj7 Gm7, Am7 , Am7, , Am7 and . The , bars 25 to 32, opens like the A section with Gm7 and Gm7♭5 C7♭9, then plays , , Gm7, , and D7♭9, which leads back to the top. The areas above are a reading of iReal Pro's chart, and other lead sheets may spell some differently.