One of my favorite jazz jokes is: "How many jazz vocalists does it take to sing 'My Funny Valentine? All of them, apparently.' " Of course, the same thing could be said of horn players, piano players - this is a tune we can't seem to get enough of. For many jazz musicians, this tune is our first encounter with the "minor cliche" of Cm, Cm(maj7), Cm7, Cm6 - a beautiful and haunting sound.
Versions by Miles Davis and Chet Baker loom large over the jazz world. Miles recorded this tune in two famous and canonical versions - the first in 1956 on the record "Cookin' With The Miles Davis Quintet", and then again in 1964 in a far more abstract, modern version on the recording "My Funny Valentine: Miles Davis in Concert", with Herbie Hancock on piano. For Chet Baker, his vocal performance on this tune on 1954's "Chet Baker Sings" defined his persona and helped him become a star. But of course, like most tunes from "The Great American Songbook", this tune was not initially a "jazz standard". Composed by the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, the tune was written for the 1937 musical comedy "Babes in Arms". This show also gives us the standard tunes "Where or When", and "The Lady is a Tramp".
In the musical, the song is sung by a woman to a man, named "Valentine 'Val' LaMar", whose character's name was conveniently changed to fit the lyrics of the tune. Of course, the lyrics of this tune are not specific about the gender of its subject, and many cover versions have been by male vocalists addressing a female love interest.
One interesting thing about this tune is how it takes a seemingly derogatory view of its subject: "Your looks are laughable / unphotographable", "Is your figure less than Greek, is your mouth a little weak". These are a pretty unusual sentiments for what purports to be a love song! These lyrics were penned by Lorenz Hart, a somewhat troubled and tragic figure in the annals of songwriting lore.
As the lyricist of the celebrated songwriting duo of Rodgers and Hart, Hart penned the lyrics to some of the greatest tunes in the repertoire: "Blue Moon"; "The Lady is a Tramp"; "Manhattan"; and "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered". This partnership began in 1919 and continued for over 20 years, with over 26 Broadway musicals to their credit - an astounding legacy.
Hart was a troubled man however, who developed a drinking problem that plagued him for many years and ultimately led him to an early end.. The lyrics of "My Funny Valentine" are, it is often thought, a reflection of Hart's low opinion of himself. The New York Times' music critic Stephen Holden said: "Many of Hart's ballad lyrics conveyed a heart-stopping sadness that reflected his conviction that he was physically too unattractive to be lovable." Tragically, he felt of himself that he was "too short and ugly to be loved".
In 1942, Richard Rodgers began work on the musical that would eventually become "Oklahoma!", one of the greatest musicals of all time. Hart by this point was becoming more erratic and unreliable, causing Rodgers to bring in another collaborator, lyricist Oscar Hammerstein. In addition, Hart felt that writing about a rural setting like Oklahoma was well outside his wheelhouse, and this was the project that led he and Rodgers to part ways. Lorenz Hart died soon after in 1943 at the age of 48.
So what is it about this tune that has secured it's place in the repertoire? I think the first thing is the repetition in the melody - there's just enough variety as the song moves along, but it does repeat the main motif over and over. And even the song's bridge ("Is your figure less than Greek") is made up of repetitive phrases where the last note of each phrase climbs ever higher. The aforementioned "minor cliche" also contributes to the tune's unique character. The more formal name for this musical device is CESH - "Contrapuntal Elaboration of Static Harmony". Essentially here we have a C minor triad with an added note that descends in half-steps - C, B, Bb, A. You can go to a piano right now, play C Eb G in your left hand, and then above it play those descending notes. It's a gorgeous sound that has driven many other classic jazz tunes like "Cry Me A River" and "Good Morning Heartache", but MFV is probably the most well-known example in the jazz world. The tune is also harmonically fairly simple, resolving at various points to Cm, Ab and Eb. These chords are all strongly related to one another, meaning that one doesn't have to navigate lots of harmonic shifts to improvise over this tune - unlike say, "Body and Soul" or other more complex ballads. It provides a user-friendly backdrop for improvisers at any level. (Here's Jazz Workshop director Paul Pieper taking a chorus on these changes.)
Of course, it doesn't have to be Valentine's Day for you to play this tune. The website jazzstandards.com has a list of 1000 tunes, and they have this one at number six! Whether it deserves this ranking or not is perhaps up for debate, but there's no question that this tune looms large in the popular imagination, and will be a go-to ballad for jazz musicians for many years to come. So put on Miles Davis or Chet Baker (or Frank Sinatra) tonight and bask in the glow of this timeless standard. Happy Valentines Day everyone! Something I thought about while I was writing this blog post: I remember seeing a funny tweet years ago - from a man - who said, "I had a dream last night where I was wearing a party dress and singing "My Funny Valentine", and in the middle of singing, I broke down crying. I think I'm under more pressure than I thought."