Free Jazz Standard Sheet Music Downloads

"I've Told Ev'ry Little Star" is a song with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, introduced in the 1932 musical Music in the Air. Kern was famously inspired to write the melody by a bird singing outside his bedroom window—an origin story that became part of the song's enduring charm.

The tune follows a standard 32-bar AABA form in F major. The original A sections feature gentle diatonic progressions that stay close to the tonic, giving the melody an unassuming, folk-like quality. In jazz performance, a common reharmonization moves to the subdominant minor in the fourth bar of the A section, adding harmonic sophistication beyond the original changes. The bridge provides rhythmic and harmonic contrast, and the song has been adapted across a range of styles, from straight-ahead swing to Latin-flavored arrangements.

Marian McPartland's contrapuntal piano arrangement has earned high praise among jazz listeners for its inventive treatment of the melody. The song also reached a broad popular audience through Linda Scott's 1961 teen pop hit, which climbed to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.