"Autumn Leaves" is a much-recorded popular song. Originally it was a 1945 French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 song "Les Feuilles mortes" (literally "The Dead Leaves") with music by Joseph Kosma

Joseph Kosma

Joseph Kosma was a Hungarian-French composer, of Jewish background.-Biography:Kosma was born József Kozma in Budapest, where his parents taught stenography and typing. He had a brother, Akos. A maternal relative was the photographer László Moholy-Nagy, and another relative was the conductor Georg...

 and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert

Jacques Prévert

Jacques Prévert was a French poet and screenwriter. His poems became and remain very popular in the French-speaking world, particularly in schools. Some of the movies he wrote are extremely well regarded, with Les Enfants du Paradis considered one of the greatest films of all time.-Life and...

. Yves Montand

Yves Montand

-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...

 (with Irène Joachim

Irène Joachim

Irène Joachim, born 13 March 1913 in Paris, died 20 April 2001, also in Paris, was a French soprano, and later a vocal teacher.-Early life:Daughter of Herman Joachim and Suzanne Chaigneau, and grand-daughter of the violinist Joseph Joachim, she learnt violin and piano as a child...

) introduced "Les feuilles mortes" in 1946 in the film Les Portes de la Nuit. The American songwriter Johnny Mercer

Johnny Mercer

John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...

 wrote English lyrics in 1947 and Jo Stafford

Jo Stafford

Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards and occasional actress whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s...

 was among the first to perform this version. Autumn Leaves became a pop standard and a jazz standard

Jazz standard

Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...

 in both languages and both as an instrumental and with a singer.

On December 24, 1950, French singer Edith Piaf

Édith Piaf

Édith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...

 rendered both French and English versions of this song on the radio programme The Big Show

The Big Show (NBC Radio)

The Big Show, an American radio variety program featuring 90 minutes of top-name comic, stage, screen and music talent, was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era alive and well against the rapidly-growing television tide...

, hosted by Tallulah Bankhead

Tallulah Bankhead

Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...

.

The Melachrino Strings Conductor: George Melachrino

George Melachrino

George Melachrino was a musician, movie composer, and musical director who was English born of Greek and Italian descent. He was an accomplished player of the violin, viola, oboe, clarinet and saxophone....

  recorded a version in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on August 18, 1950. It was released by EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 on the His Master's Voice label as catalogue number B 9952.

The film Autumn Leaves

Autumn Leaves (film)

Autumn Leaves is a 1956 Columbia Pictures drama film starring Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson in an older woman/younger man tale of mental illness. The screenplay was written by Jean Rouverol and Hugo Butler, though it was credited to Jack Jevne, Rouverol and Butler being blacklisted at the time...

(1956) starring Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford

Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

 featured the song, as sung by Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

 over the title sequence

Title sequence

A Title Sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound...

. The French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 songwriter Serge Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg

Serge Gainsbourg, born Lucien Ginsburg was a French singer-songwriter, actor and director. Gainsbourg's extremely varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorize...

 paid tribute to this song in his own song "La chanson de Prévert".

It is the corps song of the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps

Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps

The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps is a World Class drum and bugle corps based in Canton, Ohio, and founded in 1972; The Bluecoats are a member corps of Drum Corps International. The corps name stems from the origins of the organization, based out of the Canton Police Boys' Club, in honor of the...

.
Italian-American tenor Sergio Franchi

Sergio Franchi

Sergio Franchi was an Italian tenor.Franchi was born in Cremona, Italy. His father wanted him to become an electrical engineer, so he studied both music and engineering simultaneously. The family moved to South Africa in 1952, where Sergio worked part-time as a draftsman, while continuing to study...

 recorded his version on the 1968 RCA Victor album I'm a Fool to Want You.
The British Invasion

British Invasion

The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...

 band Manfred Mann

Manfred Mann

Manfred Mann was a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboardist, Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band...

 released a rock version on their 1966 album, As Is. Raquel Bitton

Raquel Bitton (singer)

Raquel Bitton is a critically acclaimed French jazz singer and interpreter of Edith Piaf's songs.-Life and career:...

 recorded a version in 2000 which apepars on her album Raquel Bitton sings Edith Piaf.

Chart appearances

In 1955 Roger Williams

Roger Williams (pianist)

Roger Williams was an American popular music pianist. As of 2004, he had released 116 albums.-Biography:...

 made the song a #1 hit

Number-one hits of 1955 (USA)

This is a list of number-one songs in the United States during the year 1955 according to Billboard magazine. Prior to the creation of the Hot 100, Billboard published multiple singles charts each week...

 in the United States, the only piano instrumental to reach number one and remaining in that position for four weeks.

Structure and chord progression

The song is in AABC form

Musical form

The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...

. "Autumn Leaves" offers a popular way for beginning jazz musicians to become acquainted with jazz harmony

Jazz harmony

Jazz harmony is the theory and practice of how chords are used in jazz music. Jazz bears certain similarities to other practices in the tradition of Western harmony, such as many chord progressions, and the incorporation of the major and minor scales as a basis for chordal construction, but...

 as the chord progression

Chord progression

A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...

 consists almost solely of II-V-I and II-V sequences which are typical of jazz. For example, in the key of G minor

G minor

G minor is a minor scale based on G, consisting of the pitches G, A, B, C, D, E, and F. For the harmonic minor scale, the F is raised to F. Its relative major is B-flat major, and its parallel major is G major....

 it opens with
Cm7 (ii) - F7 (V) - Bbmaj7 (I)
The bridge contains the same sequence as well as
Fm7 (ii) - Bb7 (V) - Ebmaj7 (I).

An example of a chord progression of the song in Gm

Each chord

Chord (music)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...

sustains for 4 beats (X- ) unless otherwise noted (X-X-)

(Verse)
Cm7 - F7 - BbM7 - EbM7 - Am7(b5) - D7(b9) - Gm6 - G7 -
Cm7 - F7 - BbM7 - EbM7 - Am7(b5) - D7(b9) - Gm6 - Gm6
(Chorus)
Am7(b5) - D7(b9) - Gm7 - G7 - Cm7 - F7 - BbM7 - EbM7 -
Am7(b5) - D7(b9) - Gm7-C7-Fm7-Bb7-EbM7 - D7(b9) - Gm6 - Gm6

External links

• "Autumn Leaves" at jazzstandards.com
• "Autumn Leaves" - Lead sheet at wikifonia.org