There Will Never Be Another You Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

Analyzed excerpt

Section: A · Bars 1–8

Ebmaj7 | Ebmaj7 | Dm7b5 | G7 | Cm7 | Cm7 | Bbm7 | Eb7

This is a short excerpt quoted for analysis, not the full chart, and this composition is very likely still in copyright. Published versions and recordings disagree with each other about the rest of the tune, and often about these bars too.

The books behind this page

Every one of these tunes is assembled out of the same handful of harmonic resources. Jazz Harmony is those resources, explained in the order in which they build on each other.

Start here Project 03 · Harmony

Harmonic analysis

Key

Eb major

Tonal center

Eb

Confidence

Low

Chords analysed

8

Chord	Roman numeral	Function	What it is doing	Confidence
Ebmaj7	bIII	Tonic	Ebmaj7 is bIII — the relative major of Cm. It is a tonic-side chord, and it is the usual door between the two keys.	High
Ebmaj7	bIII	Tonic	Ebmaj7 is bIII — the relative major of Cm. It is a tonic-side chord, and it is the usual door between the two keys.	High
Dm7b5	iiø	Predominant	Dm7b5 is the iiø7 of Cm: the predominant of a minor key.	High
G7	V7	Dominant	G7 is the dominant of Cm. In a minor key it borrows its major third from harmonic minor — that raised note is the leading tone.	High
Cm7	i	Tonic	Cm7 is the tonic of Cm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Cm7	i	Tonic	Cm7 is the tonic of Cm. It is where the progression is at rest.	High
Bbm7	ii/IV	Predominant	Bbm7 is the ii of a secondary ii-V. Together with Eb7 it prepares Ab, so the pair tonicizes IV without leaving the key. Also readable as v.	Medium
Eb7	I7	Tonic	Eb7 is the tonic, but built as a dominant seventh — the sound that defines the blues. The tonic keeps a b7 and stays at home anyway.	High

What the analyzer found in it

Relative keyC minor

Bars 1-6 are in C minor, the relative key. The notes are the same; the center is not.

iiø - V7 - iDm7b5 - G7 - Cm7

A complete minor ii-V-i in Cm, with the half-diminished ii and a dominant that borrows its leading tone from harmonic minor.

ii/IV - I7Bbm7 - Eb7

A ii-V pointing at Ab, which never arrives. The preparation is complete, the resolution is not.

High, medium and low next to each numeral are judgements about musical context, not probabilities. A low rating marks a bar that can honestly be read more than one way. How the ratings are decided →

Why this example matters

In Eb major the excerpt reads bIII – iiø – V7 – i – ii/IV – I7. Inside those 8 chords there is a complete ii-V-I. Play it slowly with only two voices — the third and seventh of each chord. In G7 those are B and F, and watching where that pair goes next tells you more about the progression than the root movement does. The same device turns up in Autumn Leaves, All The Things You Are and Tune Up, in other keys and at other tempos.

How the rest of There Will Never Be Another You goes

The excerpt is the opening, and the tune proceeds the way it starts: long-breathed, one chord per bar or two, with cadences that arrive where the ear expects them. What gives it its character is the second half, which leaves the tonic for the flat side and takes its time getting back, so the final cadence lands later than the phrase structure suggests it should. It is a favourite at sessions because it is fast to call and hard to play badly, and a favourite for teaching because the harmony is regular enough that a student can hear their own mistakes.

There Will Never Be Another You on record

Harry Warren wrote it with lyricist Mack Gordon for the 1942 film Iceland, one of a long run of songs the pair produced for Hollywood. It entered the jazz repertoire through the 1950s, and Chet Baker’s vocal-and-trumpet readings are the ones most often imitated. It remains one of the small group of standards that a rhythm section can be assumed to know without discussion, which is a status earned less by any single recording than by decades of jam sessions.

Analyze this progression

Take these bars into the analyzer and interfere with them. The fastest way to learn what a chord was doing is to remove it and read what the analysis says instead.

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There Will Never Be Another You — Chord Progression & Harmonic Analysis

Chord progression

The books behind this page

Jazz Harmony

Harmonic Narrative

Jazz Guitar Comping

Harmonic analysis

What the analyzer found in it

Why this example matters

How the rest of There Will Never Be Another You goes

There Will Never Be Another You on record

Analyze this progression

Related

ii-V-I

Secondary dominants

Autumn Leaves

All The Things You Are

Tune Up

Jazz chord progressions