Jule Styne, music · Sammy Cahn, lyrics · Introduced by Frank Sinatra in the film It Happened in Brooklyn
Time After Time
Time After Time is a 1947 ballad by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn, written for Frank Sinatra. Players have treated it as a slow ballad and as a medium swinger. Chet Baker, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz and John Coltrane all recorded it in the 1950s.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Frank Sinatra's record, then Chet Baker sings and plays trumpet, and J.J. Johnson's trombone quartet swings it. Stan Getz and John Coltrane follow on tenor saxophone, Ella Fitzgerald brings the voice back, and the last two steps are a piano trio and a soprano saxophone quartet.
Frank Sinatra with Axel Stordahl and His Orchestra · 1946
Columbia single
Frank Sinatra recorded it with Axel Stordahl's orchestra for Columbia in October 1946. The song was written for him to sing in the 1947 film It Happened in Brooklyn.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Sinatra sings with the orchestra directed by Axel Stordahl behind him. Use this track to learn the tune and the words before the jazz players change them.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four ' , then , twice through, and hum the tune over them. If you play a melody instrument, learn those four bars by ear from this track.
Chet Baker recorded it in Los Angeles on February 15, 1954 with Russ Freeman's piano, Carson Smith's bass and Bob Neel's drums. It is on the album Chet Baker Sings, on Pacific Jazz.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Baker both sings and plays trumpet on this track, so you hear the same musician give the tune two ways. At 2:46 it is the shortest record on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Sing or hum the tune once, then play it on your instrument at the pace of the record. Keep the simple: , .
J.J. Johnson's quartet recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack on September 24, 1954, with Wynton Kelly, Charles Mingus and Kenny Clarke. Blue Note issued it on The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volume 2.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Charles Mingus's bass is easy to hear behind the trombone. Johnson's solo moves at double speed, so the song turns into a swinger.
Try it on your instrument
Play the tune once at your own pace, then again twice as fast to hear how the sit at a swinging speed. If you can solo over , try one ; if not, play the melody with a steady beat.
Stan Getz recorded it in Los Angeles on August 2, 1957, with Lou Levy, Leroy Vinnegar and Stan Levey. Verve issued it in 1959 on Award Winner.
medium tempo
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Getz plays tenor saxophone at a medium pace, with Lou Levy's piano, Leroy Vinnegar's bass and Stan Levey's drums behind him. The track runs 6:46, so the quartet goes through the song more than once.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody at a medium pace with a steady beat, then repeat it starting on a different note of the first to feel how a saxophonist decorates the line. A smaller version: play the tune and add a short rest in the middle of each phrase.
John Coltrane recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack on December 26, 1958, with Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. Prestige released it in 1963 on Stardust.
ballad
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Coltrane plays tenor saxophone with Red Garland's piano, Paul Chambers's bass and Art Taylor's drums behind him. It is a ballad and runs 7:45, so the music moves slowly and has room to stretch.
Try it on your instrument
Play the tune very slowly, holding each note its full length, and keep the soft: , . If you can improvise, take one slow on the melody notes alone; if not, play the melody twice and change one note each time.
Ella Fitzgerald with Marty Paich and His Orchestra · 1966 · Swing
Whisper Not
Ella Fitzgerald recorded it in Hollywood on July 20, 1966, with arrangements and conducting by Marty Paich. It is on Whisper Not, one of her last albums for Verve.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Ella Fitzgerald sings with a small band led by Marty Paich, which includes trumpet, tenor saxophone and guitar. At 3:32 the voice stays the main thing from start to end.
Try it on your instrument
Sing the tune with the words if you know them, and mark where each phrase starts. Then play it on your instrument and match the way she shapes each phrase.
Jane Ira Bloom recorded it on soprano saxophone with pianist Fred Hersch, bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Bobby Previte. It is on her 1999 album The Red Quartets.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Bloom plays soprano saxophone, with Fred Hersch's piano, Mark Dresser's bass and Bobby Previte's drums behind her. This is the newest recording on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody an octave higher than in the other steps and keep the sparse. Try the chord loop, , , with a bass note only.
Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn write it for Frank Sinatra, who sings it in the film It Happened in Brooklyn in 1947. Sinatra records it for Columbia with Axel Stordahl's orchestra in October 1946.
1950s
Chet Baker sings it in 1954, and J.J. Johnson's quartet records it with Charles Mingus on bass. According to Wikipedia, saxophonists like Stan Getz and John Coltrane helped make it a jazz standard.
1960s
Sonny Stitt plays alto saxophone with Ralph Burns's strings in March 1961. In July 1966 Ella Fitzgerald sings it with Marty Paich's orchestra on Whisper Not for Verve.
1970s
Stéphane Grappelli plays it on violin in 1971, backed by Marc Hemmeler's piano, Eberhard Weber's bass and Kenny Clare's drums, on the album Afternoon in Paris.
1990s
The Benny Green Trio plays it for Blue Note in 1991. Etta James sings it with a band on her 1995 album Time After Time, and Jane Ira Bloom plays soprano saxophone on it in 1997 with Fred Hersch.
More great versions
6 more, from 1957 to 1995. Tap a cover to play it here.
Hank Mobley's sextet recorded it at Van Gelder Studio on April 21, 1957, with trumpet, alto and tenor saxophones in front. Blue Note issued it that year on Hank.
Sonny Stitt played alto saxophone on this 1961 Verve album, with strings arranged and conducted by Ralph Burns. The album was recorded in New York on March 6 and 7, 1961.
Violinist Stéphane Grappelli recorded it in March 1971 with Marc Hemmeler on piano, Eberhard Weber on bass and Kenny Clare on drums. It is on Afternoon in Paris on MPS.
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 · A m · E m · D m · Fkeys it moves between
A16 bars
B16 bars
C
A m
E m
D m
C
C
F
C
The chart in iReal Pro has two parts of 16 in . Both open the same way: , then , twice. In A, Cmaj7 stays for bars 5 and 6, then (bar 7) and (bar 8) lead to in bar 9 (, ). Bar 10 is , which leads to in bar 11, and in bar 12 leads to Dm7. Bar 14 is A7♭9, bar 15 is and bar 16 is G7, which returns to C. In B, Cmaj7 stays for bar 21, then (bar 22) leads to in bar 23. Bar 24 is and bar 25 is . The last seven bars wander: F♯m7♭5 Fm6, Em7 Am7, Fm6, Em7 Am7, Dm7 G7, C6 Am7 and a closing Dm7 G7.