Too Young To Go Steady - Jimmy McHugh
"Too Young To Go Steady" is a 1955 composition by Jimmy McHugh with lyrics by Harold Adamson. It is one of many popular songs of the 1950s built around the I-vi-ii-V progression (often called the 50s Progression because of its ubiquity). Unlike most songs of its type, it was embraced by many jazz artists over the years. Notable performances are by Nat King Cole (1956), John Coltrane (1961-62), Keith Jarrett (1985, a truly memorable performance), and Karrin Allyson. Of course, there were also performances by contemporary "teen idols" such as those by Connie Stevens (1960) and James Darren (1962). The song itself is in standard 32-bar AABA form, with the bridge in the mediant, also using a progression (i-iv-ii-V) similar to that in the A sections.
Of greater interest is the considerable variation in the chords used in various performances of this tune, and that often different changes are used to back up vocal and improvised instrumental choruses. Two reasons for this are the repetitiveness of the I-vi-ii-V progression and the obvious opportunities for substitutions (such as substituting II7 with alterations like the #9 and b13 for the ii7 chord in the A sections); and the tendency of musicians to change the chords in measures 12 and 28 from the standard chords (Bb Bo7 or something similar) to Bb Eb7 (or something similar) even though there is a clash with the melody.
I wrote this chord chart as an experiment, because I wanted to have different chords backing the first and last choruses for the melody and inner choruses for improvisation. This required special editing to fit the entire arrangement into one page. For example, most of the measures of the outer choruses only use two spaces, enabling me to put as many as eight measures on a line. In addition, the solo form had to be put in hard repeats, with the number of repetitions hard coded into the arrangement (4x on line 5). Issues of editing a chord chart with thirteen lines has recently been discussed in the forum (http://www.irealb.com/forums/showthr...landscape-mode) and needn't be repeated here. Also note that in order for the melody chorus to be played after the solo choruses, the chord chart must be played exactly twice.
I chose fairly standard chords for the melody chorus. After listening to many performances and selecting ideas from many of them, I chose a non-standard set of changes for the solo section, which I enjoy soloing over. I purposely made all of the A sections of the solo section very similar as a contrast to the melody section.
Please note that I am a pianist and always have the chord instrument muted on playback. I kept almost all of the chords simple in the chart, with few alterations indicated. This gives the performer freedom to add whatever alterations he desires in live performance.
I play this chart using the Jazz - Swing Two/Four style at 80 bpm; this makes the A sections of the outer choruses play in "two" and the B section and all of the solo choruses play in "four." I recently made a request for an enhancement to the Ballad Double Time Feel style, asking that a section marked D be played in double time in all choruses. If this enhancement is adopted, then the outer choruses would be played in regular time and the solo choruses played in double time.
"Too Young To Go Steady" has always been a favorite of mine since I first heard it almost sixty years ago. I hope you enjoy playing this arrangement.
Too Young To Go Steady (long version) - Jimmy McHugh
Too young to go steady (Karrin Allyson)
