There Will Never Be Another You — Form, Changes & How to Play It

About There Will Never Be Another You

A Hollywood Ballad That Became a Jam-Session Classic

There Will Never Be Another You was written by Harry Warren in 1942, with lyrics by Mack Gordon. It was composed for the Twentieth Century Fox musical film Iceland, starring the Norwegian figure-skating star Sonja Henie alongside John Payne, who played a US Marine stationed in wartime Iceland. The song was performed in the film by Joan Merrill, accompanied by Sammy Kaye and His Orchestra, and Kaye also released the first commercial recording in 1942.

The film itself has largely faded from memory, but the song quickly outlived it. Critics at the time singled out the melody — built from long, rising and falling intervals — as one of the most beautiful Warren ever wrote. Harry Warren is one of the most successful film composers in Hollywood history, with three Best Original Song Oscars and over 800 published songs to his name, but There Will Never Be Another You stands among his most enduring contributions to the jazz repertoire.

Woody Herman gave the song its first jazz reading in 1942, and by the 1950s it had been adopted as a jam-session standard. Lester Young, Chet Baker, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett all recorded definitive versions, and the tune has remained one of the most-played pieces at jazz jam sessions worldwide. The chord changes have also served as the harmonic basis for several jazz contrafacts, most famously Horace Silver’s “Split Kick” and John Scofield’s “Not You Again”.

The Form & Harmony

32-Bar ABAC in Eb Major

There Will Never Be Another You is in 32-bar ABAC form — slightly less common than AABA but easy to navigate. Each section is eight bars. The two A sections are identical and establish the home key of Eb major (concert) — F major for tenor saxophone, C major for alto saxophone. The B and C sections share most of their material, with different endings: the B section sets up the return to A, and the C section provides a closing turnaround that lands the tune back at the top.

What makes the harmony rewarding to study is the way it threads ii–V–I motion through every section. There clear and structured modulations to the relative minor, the subdominant, and the secondary dominant. The final four bars contain a textbook I–IV–iii–VI–ii–V turnaround - shared with many other standards, including Pennies From Heaven.

For improvisers, this is a tune that rewards melodic phrasing over harmonic complexity. The changes are clear and follow a logical voice-leading path — the challenge is in shaping long lines that ride the form rather than chasing each chord individually. If you are working through it for the first time, focus on the long-tone melody and on how the guide tones connect from one chord to the next.

How to Learn There Will Never Be Another You

A Practical Approach for Saxophonists

1. Sing the melody. The melody is built from long, sweeping intervals that rise and fall across each phrase. Sing it before you play it — once the melodic shape lives in your ear, it will come out of the horn with a far more natural sense of line.

2. Play the melody at a medium swing tempo. The tune is most often called at a medium swing, somewhere around 160–200 BPM. Play the melody cleanly in time, paying close attention to the long held notes that close each phrase — they are the spots that give the song its lyrical character and that listeners remember.

3. Drill the ii–V–I motion. The harmony is essentially a tour through the most common jazz progressions. Arpeggiate each chord, then connect the arpeggios using guide tones (the 3rds and 7ths) so the changes lead naturally into one another. Pay particular attention to the move into the dominant II chord in the B section — it is the most distinctive harmonic moment in the tune.

4. Loop the C-section turnaround. The final four bars of the form contain a iii–VI–ii–V turnaround with a tritone-sub Ab7. Practise it in isolation, in all twelve keys, until it lands automatically — this is one of the most common four-bar phrases in jazz and you will use it in dozens of other tunes.

If you would like one-to-one guidance working through There Will Never Be Another You or any standard, saxophone lessons in person in South East London or online are available, with a focus on jazz repertoire, transcription study and technique. You may also find our free saxophone transcriptions useful — studying how Lester Young, Sonny Rollins and Stan Getz approached the standards is one of the most direct ways to build your jazz vocabulary.

Essential There Will Never Be Another You Recordings

Five Versions Worth Knowing

The most lyrical reading is Chet Baker (1956) on Chet Baker Sings. His vocal-and-trumpet pairing on this album captures the song’s wistful melodic shape better than almost any other recording — it is the version that introduces most listeners to the tune.

From there, work through Lester Young (1952) with the Oscar Peterson Trio for the definitive prewar-jazz approach to the changes, Sonny Rollins’s 1957 reading on Newk’s Time for a masterclass in motivic improvisation, and Stan Getz on Stan Getz Plays (1954) for one of the most elegant tenor saxophone treatments in the catalogue. For a definitive vocal version, Nat King Cole’s 1956 recording remains the gold standard.

If you enjoy this style of swinging jazz standard, browse the online real book index for the standards we can offer as free PDFs in Concert, B♭ and E♭.