I Want to Be Happy — Free Lead Sheet PDF (Eb, Bb, Concert)

Music by Vincent Youmans · Published 1924 · Melody & chords only

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About I Want to Be Happy

A Running Theme from Broadway’s Biggest Hit of 1925

I Want to Be Happy was composed by Vincent Youmans, with lyrics by Irving Caesar, published in 1924 for No, No, Nanette, a farcical musical comedy about three couples entangled in a blackmail scheme at a cottage in Atlantic City. The show tried out in Chicago in 1924, where it became an unexpected long-running hit, before opening on Broadway and in London’s West End in 1925, running for 321 and 665 performances respectively.

Within the show, the song is used as a running theme representing different characters’ attempts to please the people around them, first sung by the character Jimmy to his ward Nanette. It shares its origin with Tea for Two, also written by Youmans and Caesar for the same production — the two songs, both added during the Chicago tryout at producer Harry Frazee’s request, became the show’s two enduring standards.

The chart on this page offers the melody and chords, no lyrics. The tune was an immediate hit on record: the vocal quartet the Shannon Four recorded it for Columbia in September 1924, and it went on to chart repeatedly across the mid-to-late 1920s for dance bands including Vincent Lopez and Jan Garber.

The Form & Harmony

A Bright, Rhythmically Direct 32-Bar Standard in C

I Want to Be Happy is a 32-bar standard in the key of C, verified against the engraved chart used for this page. It opens with a compact turnaround — C6, C#dim7, Dm7, G7 — a classic use of a diminished passing chord to smooth the voice leading between the tonic and the ii chord, repeated across the tune's first sixteen bars.

The tune's short bridge (bars 17–20) steps briefly into F major with a G‹7–C7–F6–B¨6 progression, before a chain of secondary dominants — E‹7, A7, D7, G7 — pulls the harmony back home to C for the final return of the opening material. It is a simple, functional design: the harmonic interest here comes from that clean modulation and dominant chain rather than from chromatic surprises, which suits the tune's driving, uncomplicated character.

That directness is exactly what has made the tune a durable jam-session and jazz education vehicle — a straightforward harmonic frame at a bright tempo gives a soloist plenty of room to build momentum without having to navigate unexpected harmonic turns, which is part of why it has remained a popular vehicle for improvisation long after its Broadway introduction.

How to Play It on Saxophone

A Practical Approach to a Bright, Uptempo Standard

1. Learn the melody slowly before adding any swing feel. The tune's stepwise phrases are simple on paper but easy to rush once you try to swing them. Nail the pitches and rhythms at a slow tempo first, then layer in a swung eighth-note feel.

2. Isolate the C6–C#dim7–Dm7–G7 turnaround. This opening four-bar shape recurs across the tune. Loop it on its own, in time, until the voice leading through the diminished passing chord feels automatic before playing it inside the full form.

3. Drill the bridge's move to F major on its own. The bridge's brief key change and its return home via a chain of secondary dominants is the tune's one real harmonic event. Practise this transition in isolation so it lands cleanly at speed.

4. Build tempo gradually with a metronome. This is a tune built for momentum and drive. Work up through a range of tempos, prioritising clean, even articulation over raw speed so the melody stays crisp as it gets faster.

5. Study Stan Getz's saxophone treatment of the tune. Listen to how Getz approaches the tune's simple harmonic frame with a light, bop-inflected swing feel on his 1957 recording with the Oscar Peterson Trio, prioritising melodic invention over sticking closely to the written tune.

If you would like one-to-one guidance on swing feel, improvisation 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 uptempo standards.

Essential Recordings

Where to Start Listening

For a definitive saxophone-led jazz treatment, seek out Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio, recorded 10 October 1957 in Los Angeles for Verve. The album opens with a bop-inflected reading of I Want to Be Happy, Getz's tenor gliding over the tune's turnaround with the light, relaxed swing that defines the session — a pianoless-adjacent setting with Peterson, guitarist Herb Ellis and bassist Ray Brown giving Getz plenty of open space.

The tune's earliest recordings came from dance bands including Vincent Lopez and Jan Garber in the mid-1920s, and it went on to be recorded by big bands including Benny Goodman. Comparing an early dance-band reading against Getz's 1957 bebop-era treatment is a good way to hear how far the tune travelled.

The tune's first vocal hits, by dance bands including Vincent Lopez and Jan Garber in the mid-1920s, and later big-band versions by Benny Goodman, established it as a standard well before its jazz-improvisation life took hold. Comparing an early dance-band reading against Rollins's bebop treatment is a good way to hear how far the tune travelled.

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. If you are also studying Tea for Two, both tunes are connected to the same 1925 production of No, No, Nanette, making them an interesting pair to study together.