4Ever Songs: Chet Baker ‘My Funny Valentine’

Between 1919 and 1943, pianist/composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart wrote many timeless songs – including the likes of “The Lady Is A Tramp,” “Blue Moon,” and “Have You Met Miss Jones – but “My Funny Valentine” is undoubtedly their crowning glory.

The song was written in 1937 for 17-year-old to sing in Rodgers & Hart’s musical, Babes In Arms; although the stage show enjoyed a successful 289-week run on Broadway, “My Funny Valentine” outlived it, going on to achieve a notable life of its own from the mid-1940s onwards when many pop and jazz singers began including it in their repertoire.

It was in the 1950s, though, that “My Funny Valentine”‘s popularity skyrocketed; there were 38 recordings of it that decade, the most notable, perhaps, by Chet Baker, a sublimely lyrical trumpeter who also sang in a dreamy, androgynous voice. His 1952 recording of the tune – when he was part of baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan’s quartet – transformed him into the poster boy of West Coast cool jazz.

Best Covers: Onyx Collective “My Funny Valentine”

Elusive New York City jazz group Onyx Collective returns with the release of their new single. “My Funny Valentine” features Nick Hakim and is a reimagining of the song originally written for Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s 1937 musical Babes in Arms. Nick Hakim delivers a delicate vocal performance over. With the release Onyx Collective becomes one of the many significant artists to cover the song, including Hal McIntyre and Ruth Gaylor, Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, Lee Wiley, Ella Fitzgerald and many others.