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Melancholy Serenade
Words & Music by Duke Enston & Jackie Gleason*Recorded by Connie Francis, 1959
Ab* A Fdim(III) Bb-9* Bm7-5 BbM7* AM7 G Fdim AM7
Mel - an - cho - ly ser - e - nade --
Ab A Fdim(III) Bb-9 Bm7-5 AM7 Bb9
Ev - 'ry time I hear it played,
Bm7-5 Am Am+7 Bb9 E7 A
Right out of space, your haunting face appears.
Ab A Fdim(III) Bb-9 Bm7-5 BbM7 AM7 G Fdim AM7
There were oth - er ser - e - nades --
Ab A Fdim(III) Bb-9 Bm7-5 AM7 Bb9
Bro - ken prom - i - ses we made.
Bm7-5 Am Am+7 Bb9 E7 A D9 A AM7
Why must I pay day after day with tears?
Bridge:
Dm Dm+7 Dm7 E7 Am7alt* Am+5* Am
Alone in my room I watch the ghost of you
Cm Cm+7* Cm7 Cm7-5 G/E Dm7-5 E7
Alone in the gloom once more I'm close to you.
Ab A Fdim(III) Bb-9 Bm7-5 BbM7 AM7 G Fdim AM7
Mel - an - cho - ly ser - e - nade --
Ab A Fdim(III) Bb-9 Bm7-5 AM7 Bb9
As the mu - sic starts to fade,
Bm7-5 Am Am+7 Bb9 E7 A
I feel your kiss and then you dis - appear.
(Instrumental Interlude: First Line of Bridge)
Cm Cm+7* Cm7 Cm7-5 G/E Dm7-5 E7
Alone in the gloom once more I'm close to you.
Ab A Fdim(III) Bb-9 Bm7-5 BbM7 AM7 G Fdim AM7
Mel - an - cho - ly ser - e - nade --
Ab A Fdim(III) Bb-9 Bm7-5 AM7 Bb9
As the mu - sic starts to fade,
Bm7-5 Am Am+7 Bb9 E7 A9 A
I feel your kiss and then you dis - appear.
*Gleason was not a trained musician. When "writing" music, he would dictate it to someone who could read and write musical notation. He used this song as his theme song, and his own recording of it is deeply rooted in the memory of all of us who ever watched his TV show. Finding the lyrics feels like a bit of a coup, because so far as I can tell, it was recorded as a vocal perhaps no more than twice.
Performance Note: Some of the chord formations used in this arrangement appear nowhere else in the Guitarguy's Golden Classics. The Ab cited at the beginning of each verse is played as xx111x. In theory, Ab is the same as G# -- which I typically play as 466544 -- but the voicing of this particular chord formation is important here. The Bb-9 is really just a derivative of the Fdim(III) chord which preceeds it; it is played as xx3430. And yes, it is probably mis-named because of the open fret on the sixth string -- so sue me. Finally, the chord intended by the name BbM7 is probably also mis-named; the formation is also derivative, from the Bm7-5 which preceeds it, and it is played as x03230 -- to correctly be a BbM7, it would probably have to be x23231. I have used these probably-inaccurate names for clarity (if you can believe that) because they infer (to me, anyway) a chord whose root uses an "A" formation placed on the 3rd fret (xx222x). From that root, xx212x would be a major 7th, and xx232x would be a flat 9th. In the bridge, the the Am7alt is 002213 and the Am+5 is played 002211. The Cm series is played as 335543 to xx5443 to 335343.