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.



 
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.