You Are Too Beautiful - Richard Rodgers

[CyrilleB]

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman version:

You Are Too Beautiful - Richard Rodgers

 

[CyrilleB]

Dick Haymes version (1945):

You Are Too Beautiful (Dick Haymes) - Richard Rodgers

 

[engelbach]

This is how I play it.

Note that I wrote the second bar of the 2nd ending at double width to better fit in the extended chords.

You Are Too Beautiful -Rev JE - Richard Rodgers

Cheers,
Jer

 

[CyrilleB]

Looks nice!
As with most jazz standards, there are countless versions with reharmonizations.
I always find useful to study the original or first recorded versions. There are gems that most people have forgotten (mostly because of the poor recording quality in those times). But those arrangers really knew how to bring emotion in each notes of the melody to fit with the lyrics.
There are some exceptions where the melody sometimes actually sound better with new reharmonizations. But that's rare.
And there are of course instrumental versions that are so different from the original that it could just be a totally different tune.
For ex, I love the version of "My favorite things" by John Coltrane. He plays it in a way that it could have been his own composition!
They are no rules. The only thing that matter is the emotion that comes out from it.

 

[engelbach]

Thanks, CyrilleB.

There are quite a few tunes that sound better in their rearms than in their originals. Many are from Bill Evans, whose reharms have often become the standard "street changes."

Cheers,
Jer

 

[CyrilleB]

Yes, of course, many of Bill Evans standards version have became the common changes. Some do sound better, but not all of them.
I'm just taking about the relationship between the chords and the melody, not the performance itself (which is always great).
Bill Evans changes are also great for improvising

Cheers,
Cyrille