I looked at the song Have You Met Miss Jones?. What a beautiful and harmonically unusual song it is!
For a start, the words - by Lorenz Hart - tell a joyful story of the blossoming of love, from 'Have you met Miss Jones?' someone said as we shook hands. She was just Miss Jones to me
through to
I met Miss Jones, and we'll keep on meeting till we die - Miss Jones and I!
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It was written for the musical I'd Rather Be Right and was published in 1937.
And what about those glorious harmonies by the great Richard Rodgers? No wonder they have appealed to such modern jazzmen as John Coltrane.
It is difficult with the cold medium of text on a screen to show what is exciting about the harmonic progression. But I will try. Incidentally, I have noticed that the various books of music offer many alternatives within the chord structures, so I am working with one of the least complex.
With the tune in the key of G, we find:-
(1) It includes the harmonies of G sharp diminished, lots of A minor 7ths and E minor 7ths.
(2) While the singer holds the word 'die' on the long high F sharp (in 'till we die', at the climax of the song), the accompanying harmony moves through three chords: G major 7th; C sharp diminished; and A minor 7th. Wow! What a heady experience.
(3) The 'middle eight' is unlike all other middle eights that I know of. The basic chords for the eight bars are these (with chord books offering other subtleties in between):-
C major | Eb7 | Ab major | B7 |
E major | Eb7 | Ab | D7 |
E major | Eb7 | Ab | D7 |
How amazing is that as a way of leading us through to the D7 that in its turn will take us into the final eight?
