Free Jazz Standard Sheet Music Downloads

"The Boy Next Door" is a 1944 popular song by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, written for the MGM musical film Meet Me in St. Louis. Judy Garland introduced the song on screen, and it has since been praised as a model of how a song can efficiently advance a story and reveal a character's emotions.

Set in B♭ major and following a 32-bar AABA form, the tune features a warm, romantic melody that perfectly captures the lyric's theme of quiet longing for a next-door neighbor. The harmonic language is relatively straightforward, but the interplay between stepwise motion and well-placed melodic leaps gives the song its distinctive charm. It works beautifully as a ballad, and jazz musicians have found in its elegant structure a rewarding vehicle for intimate improvisation.

The definitive recording remains Judy Garland's original performance from the 1944 film soundtrack. In the jazz world, the song has been explored as a piano ballad in the style of Bill Evans, and it appears in the Real Book as part of the standard jazz repertoire.