Free Jazz Standard Sheet Music Downloads

"Dearly Beloved" is a standard composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, written for the 1942 film You Were Never Lovelier starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. Astaire introduced the song in the film, and it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

The tune follows a 32-bar AABA form, showcasing Kern's gift for crafting melodies of seemingly effortless grace. The A sections present a warm, flowing melodic line that moves with natural elegance, while the bridge introduces harmonic color changes that create gentle tension before resolving back to the main theme. The song works beautifully across a range of tempos, from intimate ballad readings to medium-tempo swing interpretations. Like Kern's celebrated "All the Things You Are," the composition conceals sophisticated harmonic craftsmanship—effective modulations and chromatic voice leading—beneath an accessible, singable surface, making it a rewarding vehicle for jazz improvisation.

Fred Astaire's original film performance remains the song's most iconic vocal introduction. In the jazz realm, John Coltrane recorded a composition of the same title on his album Sun Ship (recorded 1965). More recently, Tony Bennett offered a polished vocal interpretation accompanied by the Bill Charlap Trio on The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (2015), bringing renewed attention to this elegant Kern-Mercer collaboration.