Jazz Changes

Songs from 1924 to 1930

Vincent Youmans

Vincent Youmans wrote the four songs here between 1924 and 1930, and each belongs to a stage musical: Tea for Two to No, No, Nanette, Sometimes I'm Happy to Hit the Deck, More Than You Know to Great Day and Time on My Hands to Smiles. The page follows them from 1920s dance bands and singers through piano trios, horn players and big bands, to Keith Jarrett alone at the piano in 2005 and Bill Frisell in 2010.

Through the years

  1. 1920s

    Youmans and Irving Caesar write Tea for Two for No, No, Nanette in 1924 and Sometimes I'm Happy in 1925. Roger Wolfe Kahn's orchestra records Sometimes I'm Happy in April 1927, with Franklyn Baur singing. Mayo Methot introduces More Than You Know in Great Day, and Ruth Etting records it for Columbia in November 1929, the month Libby Holman records it for Brunswick.

    Ruth Etting More Than You Know · 1929
  2. 1930s

    Time on My Hands, from the Ziegfeld musical Smiles, gets its first recording from Ray Noble's orchestra in London in February 1931, with Al Bowlly singing. Art Tatum plays Tea for Two alone in 1933 and Fats Waller does the same in 1937. Benny Goodman's band records Sometimes I'm Happy in 1935, and his trio records More Than You Know in 1936.

    Ray Noble and the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra, vocal Al Bowlly Time on My Hands · 1931Art Tatum Tea for Two · 1933Benny Goodman Sometimes I'm Happy · 1935Benny Goodman Trio More Than You Know · 1936Fats Waller Tea for Two · 1937
  3. 1940s

    Billie Holiday records Time on My Hands in New York in June 1940 with Roy Eldridge on trumpet, Teddy Wilson on piano and Lester Young on tenor saxophone, who plays behind her without a solo. Young leads his own quartet on Sometimes I'm Happy in December 1943. In 1949 Dave Brubeck places Tea for Two in a trio of piano, bass and drums.

    Billie Holiday Time on My Hands · 1940Lester Young Quartet Sometimes I'm Happy · 1943The Dave Brubeck Trio Tea for Two · 1949
  4. 1950s

    Oscar Peterson's trio records Time on My Hands in 1953, and it comes out in 1954 on an album of Youmans songs. Sometimes I'm Happy is recorded by Bud Powell's trio in 1950, Dave Brubeck's quartet in 1954, Carmen McRae in 1955 and Jimmy Smith in 1958. Sonny Rollins plays More Than You Know with Thelonious Monk in 1954, and Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald sing it.

    Bud Powell Trio Sometimes I'm Happy · 1950Bud Powell Trio Tea for Two · 1950Sonny Rollins Quartet Time on My Hands · 1951Johnny Smith Quintet featuring Stan Getz Sometimes I'm Happy · 1952Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio Tea for Two · 1952Stan Getz Quintet Time on My Hands · 1952Oscar Peterson Trio Time on My Hands · 1953Sonny Rollins More Than You Know · 1954
    11 more
    The Dave Brubeck Quartet Sometimes I'm Happy · 1954Dizzy Gillespie and Roy Eldridge Sometimes I'm Happy · 1954Dinah Washington More Than You Know · 1955Carmen McRae Sometimes I'm Happy · 1955Tal Farlow Tea for Two · 1955Sonny Criss Quintet More Than You Know · 1956Ella Fitzgerald More Than You Know · 1957Ben Webster Quintet Time on My Hands · 1957Jimmy Smith Sometimes I'm Happy · 1958Blossom Dearie Tea for Two · 1958Chet Baker Time on My Hands · 1959
  5. 1960s

    Coleman Hawkins records More Than You Know in February 1961 with Kenny Burrell on guitar, and Stanley Turrentine records it that September with Tommy Flanagan and Grant Green, though Blue Note does not issue it until 1985. Thelonious Monk plays Tea for Two as a trio in 1963, and Shirley Scott plays Sometimes I'm Happy on organ with a big band in 1966.

    Coleman Hawkins More Than You Know · 1961Stanley Turrentine More Than You Know · 1961Thelonious Monk Tea for Two · 1963
  6. 1970s

    Joe Pass plays More Than You Know alone at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July 1975. Zoot Sims plays it with the Bill Holman Orchestra in Los Angeles in September 1976, and Phineas Newborn records Sometimes I'm Happy there that December. Pablo issues both in 1977.

  7. 1980s

    Duke Jordan records Time on My Hands in Copenhagen in July 1985 with bassist Jesper Lundgaard and drummer Billy Hart. The Danish label SteepleChase issues it in 1988 on an album named for the song.

  8. 1990s

    Stacey Kent releases More Than You Know in 1997 on her album Close Your Eyes. Joni Mitchell records Sometimes I'm Happy in 1999 for Both Sides Now, an album of standards with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Vince Mendoza. Reprise releases it in February 2000.

  9. 2000s

    Keith Jarrett plays Time on My Hands alone at the piano at Carnegie Hall in New York on 26 September 2005. ECM releases the concert in 2006 as The Carnegie Hall Concert.

    Keith Jarrett Time on My Hands · 2005
  10. 2010s

    Bill Frisell records Tea for Two in 2010 with viola and drums and no bass.

The tunes