Free Jazz Standard Sheet Music Downloads

"Blue Moon" is a standard ballad composed by Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) with lyrics by Lorenz Hart in 1934. It holds the unique distinction of being the only Rodgers and Hart hit not introduced in a Broadway show or Hollywood film.

The song follows a 32-bar AABA form and has an unusual history: the melody was written at least three times with different lyrics—first as "Prayer" for the film Hollywood Party, then as "The Bad in Every Man" for Manhattan Melodrama—before music publisher Jack Robbins persuaded Hart to write more commercially appealing lyrics. The final version romantically depicts a stroke of luck under a "blue moon" (an English idiom meaning "very rarely"). Harmonically, the tune is built on the familiar I–vi–ii–V turnaround progression, making it highly accessible for jazz improvisation. It is performed in keys such as Eb or C major, and adapts well to ballad, swing, and bossa nova treatments.

Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé each had hit recordings in 1949, and the Marcels' doo-wop version reached number one in 1961. Ella Fitzgerald's rendition on her Rodgers and Hart Song Book (1956) and recordings by Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley have all contributed to the song's enduring popularity across genres.