Anniversary Song — chords & grille (gypsy jazz)
Anniversary Song by Saul Chaplin & Al Jolson — key of A (manouche), form A A B B. Below is the full chord grid; on Haute Gitanerie you can play along with a scrolling chord ribbon, transpose to any key, set the tempo, and switch on a rhythm backing (la pompe) to practise your solos over the changes.
About
Anniversary Song was written in 1946 by Al Jolson and Saul Chaplin for the film The Jolson Story, adapting Iosif Ivanovici's 1880 waltz Waves of the Danube — a sweeping 3/4 melody gypsy players took up as a waltz feature.
The sound — an A minor waltz: E7 pulling into Am, an A7 reaching toward Dm6, and a lift into the relative major (C). Lush, romantic, unmistakably a valse.
Practising it — feel the three, then trace A harmonic minor with Am, Dm6 and E7 arpeggios; lean on E7's G♯ resolving to A. Let the melody sing over a light waltz pompe; keep it flowing rather than fast.
Anniversary Song chords — the grille
A : | E7 | E7 | E7 | E7 | Am | Am | A7 | A7 | Dm6 | Dm6 | Am | Am | E7 | E7 | Am | Am |
B : | G7 | G7 | C | C | E7 | E7 | Am | Am | Dm | Dm | Am | Am | B7 | E7 | Am | Am |
Chords used
E7 · Am · A7 · Dm6 · G7 · C · Dm · B7
Play along
Open the interactive grille for Anniversary Song: loop any section, transpose to any key, set the tempo, and play over a rhythm accompaniment — with a real recorded pompe on featured tunes. In the browser, free.