How Soon

Words & Music by Al Stillman & Henry Mancini
Recorded by Henry Mancini, 1964
Theme from "The Richard Boone Show"


A7  Dsus4 D   DM7  D   D9  D  Em7/6   A
How soon the flame of love can die,

 G   A6     A   Em7   A7   G/B     A7     D   Am7  B7
How soon "good night" be - comes "good - bye."

Cdim   Em7  B7       Cdim  B7 Em7/6  Em  B+  
You're gone now, and life goes  on  now,

    Em6   Em7   Cdim  B7   Am7 B7  Gm7  Gdim
And ev' - ry - thing seems out of tune.

A7  Dsus4 D   DM7  D   D9   D  Em7/6   A
But time can bring a change of heart,

 G   A6   A  Em7  A7   G/B   A7   C#m7-5  F#7
And love can make an - oth - er start,

 B7     G  G/F# Fdim     Edim    D  F#m B7
Some - day, you may come back to me to stay,

Cdim G G/F# Em7 Gdim  D
But who can say how soon?

This one is sort of an accidental discovery. I've long been a fan of instrumental recordings, and acquired this one thinking it would be strictly that. It wasn't -- Mancini's "orchestra and chorus" was at work, and I quickly feel in love with the melody. (Searching for other vocal versions lead me to another recording with a similar title.) Though this one probably doesn't qualify as a "standard" (in fact, several of the versions listed at www.allmusic.com for this one are actually for the other song) its melody hooked me, so here it is.

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 and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.