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The recent death of Burt Bacharach brought this lovely tune to mind and I wanted to post a chord chart of it. It is very interesting musically and worth some discussion. "Make It Easy On Yourself" is a 1962 song by Bacharach with lyrics by Hal David. It was a hit that year by Jerry Butler and...

"Getting To Know You" is a song from the 1951 Broadway musical "The King and I," with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and music by Richard Rodgers and the 1956 film of the same name. Its well-known lyrics describe a teacher's feelings about her new pupils at the start of a school year. The song is...

In 1938, two memorable songs emerged from the Broadway flop "Right This Way" with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal: "I'll Be Seeing You" and the lesser known "I Can Dream, Can't I." The latter was a hit, first for the Tommy Dorsey band in 1937, and then for the Andrews Sisters and...

Jerry Goldsmith (1929–2004) was a leading of music for film and television of the last half of the last century. His accomplishments are too numerous to list here and may be easily found (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Goldsmith). Among the notable movies he scored was the 1966 Steve...

"Surrey With The Fringe On Top" is a song from the 1943 musical "Oklahoma!" by Rodgers and Hammerstein. It has simple, diatonic melody and harmony with an AABA' form. The very simplicity can make this song difficulty to handle—what does one do with a melody that repeats one note at the beginning...

This is a list of some of the early hits of Johnny Mathis. These charts were either written or revised by me and I play them on my solo piano gigs. I thought it would be useful to have them presented in one place. A Certain Smile (K rev) - Fain-Webster released 1958 Gina - Vance and Carr...

"Gina" is a song with lyrics and music by Paul Vance and Leon Carr. It was recorded and released in 1962 and was a hit record for Johnny Mathis. It is said that the song was a tribute to Gina Lollobrigida. In any case, it is a lovely song with sweet lyrics. It has a standard 32-bar AABA...

"Wonderful! Wonderful!" is a 1957 song composed by Sherman Edwards with lyrics by Ben Raleigh. It was a hit single for Johnny Mathis in 1957 and was recorded about the same time as "It's Not For Me To Say," a chord chart for which I recently posted. The sheet music for this song is written in...

This is a request I first made two years ago. Just before my New Year's Eve gig, I realized that there were a number of songs that I was requested to play that iReal Pro could not easily accommodate. These are non-swing songs in "two," meaning that, for 4/4 time, the song called for a note on...

"It's Not For Me To Say" is a song with lyrics by Al Stillman and music by Robert Allen. It was featured in the 1957 movie "Lizzie" and sung by Johnny Mathis, who had a gold record with his performance. This song, along with "Wonderful, Wonderful" (a chord chart for this one is coming) was...

"I'll Never Find Another You" is a song with words and music by Tom Springfield, brother of British singer Dusty Springfield. It was a 1965 hit by the Australian singing group "The Seekers," who had a string of hits in the middle 1960s, including "What Have They Done To The Rain" and "Georgy...

I have a thought which may be of interest. Many of us are Windows users. I am well aware that there is no iReal Pro app for Windows platforms. That being so, it would be of use to have an app that could read a posted chord chart and display it. I'm not requesting an editor or a playback app...

"You Belong To My Heart" is the English-language version of the Mexican song "Solamente Una Vez" by Agustin Lara, featured in the 1941 film "Melodías de América." This sweet Mexican bolero was also presented in the 1943 Disney movie "The Three Caballeros" where Donald Duck goes wild over singer...

"Laura" is a very strange case. To further discuss it here, I'd like you (Jerry, you'll be interested, too) to read Peter Spitzer's Music Blog for a whole presentation about this wonderful tune. For everyone--Peter's blog is always a good read if you're interested in jazz and traditional popular...

Here is another song of the 1950s that is well-remembered by those of us who were there and takes us back to a time when we were young. "Venus" is a 1959 composition by Ed Marshall. It was a big hit for teen idol Frankie Avalon that year. It has a simple 32-bar AABA structure with little...

April in Portugal - Raul Ferrão "April In Portugal" is a 1947 song by Portuguese (surprise!) composer Raul Ferrão. It was originally named "Coimbra" for the city in Portugal and popularized by Amália Rodrigues in 1950. It was a hit in the US in 1953, with instrumentals by Les Baxter, Richard...

"It Only Happens When I Dance With You" is a song from the 1948 classic film "Easter Parade" with words and music by Irving Berlin. It is a song of seduction, appearing three times in the film with different couples: an unsuccesful seduction by Fred Astaire of Ann Miller; a successful seduction...

"How About Me" is a great old tune composed by Irving Berlin in 1928. It is the quintessential expression of sorrow over a love affair that is over. Classic performances can be found on YouTube by Ella Fitzgerald (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0tzchp-AzM) and by Judy Garland...

"Lollipops And Roses" was composed by Tony Velona. It is a waltz, first recorded by Jack Jones in 1961, with sweet lyrics appropriate to its time. Jones won a grammy in 1962 for this performance, which can be found on YouTube. It has a AABA form, with interesting changes in the bridge. It is...

"I've Told Every Little Star" is a 1932 composition by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein from the musical "Music In the Air." Unfortunately, it suffers from many poor performances, particularly the awful Linda Scott 1961 hatchet job which changed both the melody and words to attract a...