Harlem Nocturne

Words & Music by Earle Hagen & Sid Robin*, 1939
Recorded by Mel Torme, 1963


Em            E9  Em   B+     Em       G Em    G    Em    Am
A noc - turne for the blues, played on a bro - ken heart string;

     Am         A9  Am  Am+7    C7   C      B7  Cdim Em
It's wail - ing out the news my ba - by is gone from me.


Em              E9 Em   B+     Em    G    Em    G    Em    Am
Dark shad - ows in the rain, a tel - e - phone that won't ring;

Am              A9  Am  Am+7     C7   C       B7  Cdim Em Bm7-5  C7  Em
Just mem - o - ries re - main of lovers that used  to  be.


G  Cdim Am7alt   G    G5  G6  Dm7   Cdim(IV)  G   G5 G6  Dm7
I  miss  the   laughs and the fun,     my    spot in the sun,
 
Cdim(IV) G  G5  G6 Dm7 Am7     G       g-g#-a-bflat-b-d
  When   I was the one one and on - ly;
 
    C7           Gm7     Fdim  C7               Gm7
The mu - sic and lights, those won - der - ful nights,
 
    D      Am7  Bb   D9   F  Cdim   D7 
The morn - ing mist, the time we kissed;
 
     G     G5  G6  Dm7 Cdim(IV) G   G5 G6  Dm7
The laughs and the fun,   my   days in the sun,
 
Cdim(IV) G   G5  G6  Dm7      Am7  G          g-g#-a-bflat-b-d
They're  o - ver and done and I'm lone - ly.

       C7       Gm7       C7               Gm7
Don't ask me to hide the heart - break in - side --

      D     Am7  Bb   D9  G  Bm7-5  F   Cdim  B7
The gleam - ing spark is gone the light went dark.


Em               E9  Em   B+    Em       G  Em   G   Em    Am
This noc - turne for the blues took all and left me noth - in', 

Am         A9  Am  Am+7  C7  C          B7  Cdim Em
Noth - in' but the blues til baby comes back to me.

Suggested by recent visitor Sami Scot. The basis for many awesome sax-featuring big band recordings, this one has also been recorded by Charlie Barnet, Les Brown, Glenn Miller, Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Ray Anthony, Ted Heath and many other bands. Theme from the Mike Hammer TV Show, 1984.

I have seen at least two different sets of lyrics for this one, so I'm not entirely sure if Torme's version uses Hagen's or not -- but this is the set I prefer, so I'm including it.

Finally, the notation "g-g#-a-bflat-b-d" refers to a single-note bass run, rather than chords, so don't get confused.

A recent e-mail exchange with the wife of the composer prompted me to amend this chart to include the lyricist's name. Mrs. Hagen told me that while Earl did compose the song, he wrote no lyrics for it. There were actually two lyricists on this song, because there were two different sets of lyrics produced for this melody. The Mel Torme version which I used as the basis for my transcription used the lyrics of Sid Robin, who wrote his under the title of "Nocturne for the Blues." Dick Rogers wrote a different lyric under the title "Harlem Nocturne."

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.