Love Me or Leave Me — Free Lead Sheet PDF (Eb, Bb, Concert)

Music by Walter Donaldson · Published 1928 · Melody & chords only

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About Love Me or Leave Me

A Torch Song That Became a Standard Twice Over

Love Me or Leave Me was composed by Walter Donaldson, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, published in 1928. It was introduced in the Broadway musical Whoopee!, which opened in December 1928 — the same show that produced Makin’ Whoopee — where it was sung not by the show’s star Eddie Cantor but by Ruth Etting, a singer closely associated with Donaldson and Kahn’s work throughout the late 1920s.

Etting’s performance was popular enough that she was given the song a second time, in the 1930 show Simple Simon. Her original 1928 recording for Columbia reached number two on the American charts, and the song’s identity became so closely tied to her that a 1955 film biography of her life, starring Doris Day, was named after it. Decades later, pianist George Shearing borrowed part of the tune’s harmony as the basis for his own jazz standard, Lullaby of Birdland.

The chart on this page offers the melody and chords, no lyrics. If you are also working through Makin’ Whoopee, it is worth hearing the two side by side — both from the same 1928 show and the same writing team, but pulling in very different emotional directions.

The Form & Harmony

A Minor-Key Vamp That Resolves Into a Major-Key Home

Love Me or Leave Me is a 32-bar standard, most commonly played in the key of Ab. What makes its opening distinctive is that the tune does not simply sit in Ab from the first bar: it opens with a moody, minor-key vamp before resolving into its true major-key home. That brief detour into minor territory suits the lyric perfectly — this is an ultimatum of a song, direct and a little defiant — and gives the tune real emotional weight before it settles into the warmer major-key harmony that carries the rest of the form.

The tune’s harmony has an afterlife well beyond its own performances. In 1952, pianist George Shearing borrowed part of its chord progression as the basis for Lullaby of Birdland, a tune he reportedly wrote in about ten minutes as a radio theme. Shearing’s melody moves in a completely different direction from Donaldson’s original, but the harmonic relationship between the two tunes is well documented and makes for a genuinely useful comparison for anyone studying how standards borrow from one another.

That opening minor-to-major resolution is worth deliberately isolating in practice — it is a small structural detail that is easy to play through without noticing, but it is exactly the kind of harmonic motion that gives this tune its distinctive character among Donaldson’s otherwise straightforwardly major-key writing.

How to Play It on Saxophone

A Practical Approach to a Direct, Minor-to-Major Torch Song

1. Learn the melody's direct, declarative character. This is an ultimatum of a song, and the melody is correspondingly direct rather than wistful. Learn it with that emotional directness in mind rather than treating it as a conventional soft ballad.

2. Learn the minor-key vamp before the major-key theme. The tune opens with a striking minor-key vamp before resolving into its true home key, a major key. Practise that opening separately so the shift from minor to major feels like a deliberate arrival rather than an accident.

3. Learn the harmony underneath the melody. Practise outlining the chord changes on their own so you have solid harmonic footing before adding embellishment or improvising over the form.

4. Work on dynamic control and intensity. This tune builds in emotional intensity across its form. Practise shaping dynamics deliberately across each phrase rather than playing at one volume throughout.

5. Study Lullaby of Birdland alongside it. Once you know this tune's changes, learn George Shearing's Lullaby of Birdland and compare how differently its melody sits over related harmony — a useful, compact study in how one set of changes can generate two very different tunes.

If you would like one-to-one guidance on jazz harmony, phrasing or building a wider 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 this and other standards.

Essential Recordings

Where to Start Listening

For a purely instrumental take, seek out Dave Pell's Jazz Octet, whose 1957 recording features saxophonist Pepper Adams and trumpeter Jack Sheldon soloing over Marty Paich's arrangement — a cool, West Coast jazz treatment that shows off the tune's minor-to-major opening particularly well in a small horn ensemble.

On the vocal side, Ruth Etting's original 1928 recording for Columbia, cut just days after the tune was introduced on Broadway, remains the definitive reading and the reason the song became so closely identified with her. Nina Simone's later recording brings a completely different, more intense reading to the tune, showing how much the song's directness suits a jazz and blues treatment decades after its Broadway debut. For the harmonic connection, seek out George Shearing's Lullaby of Birdland and listen for the borrowed chord progression underneath an entirely different melody.

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 Makin' Whoopee, comparing the two songs from the same 1928 show is a good way to hear the range of Donaldson and Kahn's writing.