Bill — Free Lead Sheet PDF (Eb, Bb, Concert)

Music by Jerome Kern · Published 1927 · Melody & chords only

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About Bill

A Song Withdrawn Once, Then Reborn a Decade Later

Bill was composed by Jerome Kern, originally with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse, written for the 1918 musical Oh, Lady! Lady!! at the small Princess Theatre, intended for star Vivienne Segal. It was withdrawn before the show opened, considered too melancholy and understated for the light, comic tone of that production — an unusually intimate ballad for a genre built on brighter romantic numbers.

Nearly a decade later, while working with Oscar Hammerstein II on the far more serious and socially conscious Show Boat (1927), Kern remembered the discarded song and realised it would suit a nightclub scene in the new show perfectly. Hammerstein revised Wodehouse's original lyric — though he always insisted on crediting Wodehouse fully for the song and took no credit himself — and it was given to real-life nightclub singer Helen Morgan to perform as the tragic character Julie LaVerne.

The chart on this page offers the melody and chords, no lyrics. Morgan's performance, delivered as though on the verge of tears, became so closely associated with both the song and the role that she reprised it in both film adaptations of Show Boat, in 1929 and 1936.

The Form & Harmony

Diminished Passing Chords Under an Intimate Melody

Bill is in the key of Bb, verified against the engraved chart used for this page. The opening phrase moves from B¨6 through G‹7-C‹7-F7 — a standard turnaround — before Kern inserts a D¨°7 diminished passing chord ahead of the return to C‹7-F7, a subtle chromatic touch that colours what would otherwise be a plain cadence.

A second diminished chord, B°7, appears shortly after, and the harmony includes a descending bass line under a B¨/A slash chord in bar 10 — a smooth, stepwise chromatic movement in the bass that gives the accompaniment quiet motion under the melody's more static, conversational phrases. This kind of understated chromatic detail, rather than dramatic key changes, is typical of Kern's more intimate ballad writing.

That subtlety in the harmony matches the song's history and tone perfectly — a quietly sophisticated undercurrent beneath a melody about plain, unglamorous affection, rather than the grander harmonic gestures found in some of the more theatrical standards on this site.

How to Play It on Saxophone

A Practical Approach to an Intimate Ballad

1. Learn the melody's plain, conversational character. The lyric describes ordinary, unglamorous affection. Learn the melody with that intimate, understated quality in mind rather than treating it as a grand romantic statement.

2. Work rubato before you work in time. Practise the melody freely, shaping phrases the way a singer would, before locking it to a metronome. This tune loses its intimacy fast if drilled in strict time from the first pass.

3. Isolate the diminished passing chords. The D¨°7 and B°7 chromatic touches are subtle but important. Practise resolving each one in isolation so they feel natural inside the full form.

4. Prioritise a warm, restrained tone over volume. This tune calls for restraint rather than power. Spend practice time on soft dynamics, controlled vibrato and a warm, close tone.

5. Study Oscar Peterson's instrumental reading of the tune. Listen to how Peterson's piano brings restraint and space to the melody on his 1959 recording, a useful model for translating the song's intimacy into an instrumental setting rather than reaching for volume or technical display.

If you would like one-to-one guidance on ballad playing, tone development or building a wider jazz vocabulary, saxophone lessons in person in South East London or online are available. The free saxophone transcriptions on this site are also useful for hearing how great players navigate ballads and other standards.

Essential Recordings

Where to Start Listening

For a purely instrumental jazz treatment, seek out Oscar Peterson's recording on Oscar Peterson Plays the Jerome Kern Songbook (Verve, 1959, produced by Norman Granz), where his piano brings a quiet, restrained intimacy to the melody that suits the song's understated character.

The definitive vocal recording remains Helen Morgan's, whose original 1927 stage performance and subsequent film performances — in the 1929 part-talkie Show Boat and the celebrated 1936 film version — established the song's understated, emotionally direct style, delivered as though on the verge of tears.

Lena Horne also recorded a notable version of the song, bringing her own vocal style to Kern's melody in a later era of jazz-influenced popular singing. Comparing Peterson's instrumental restraint against Morgan's original vocal delivery is a good way to hear how the song's intimacy translates across mediums.

If you are working through the broader Great American Songbook repertoire, browse the online real book index for related tunes, all available as free lead sheet PDFs in Concert, Bb and Eb.