What are the most famous jazz songs of all time? From “Summertime” and “Take Five” to “Autumn Leaves” and “Round Midnight”, a small group of tunes appear again and again in jazz history, recordings and live performance.
In this guide, we’ve selected 25 of the most famous jazz songs, with a classic version and a modern listening tip for each.
Many of these pieces are taken from what we call the Great American Songbook: a selection of tunes that were written (broadly speaking) during the first half of the 20th Century by composers like Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin.
They were often written as songs for musical theatre shows, films, or simply as the popular music of the day, but their harmony and structures meant that they also worked perfectly as vehicles for jazz improvisation.
There are thousands of recordings of famous jazz musicians playing or singing these kinds of songs, and one of the remarkable things about the music is that great players are able to bring new and exciting elements to extremely familiar tunes.
Stay tuned for our full list of famous jazz songs. If you’re looking for a quick starting point, though, here are ten of the most famous jazz songs that appear again and again in recordings, concerts and jam sessions.
10 Famous Jazz Songs Everyone Should Know
- Summertime – George Gershwin
- Take Five – Dave Brubeck / Paul Desmond
- Autumn Leaves – Joseph Kosma
- ’Round Midnight – Thelonious Monk
- Fly Me to the Moon – Bart Howard
- So What – Miles Davis
- The Girl from Ipanema – Antônio Carlos Jobim
- My Favorite Things – Rodgers & Hammerstein
- Body and Soul – Johnny Green
- All the Things You Are – Jerome Kern
These ten classics are just the beginning. Below we take a closer look at 25 of the most famous jazz songs ever written, including classic recordings and modern interpretations
25. Honeysuckle Rose – Fats Waller
A popular song from the 1930s, ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ was composed by pianist, singer and entertainer Fats Waller, with lyrics by Andy Razaf. The song was published in 1929.
Beyond its popularity as a song, many jazz musicians use the beginning of the melody line as a ‘lick’ or component in their improvisations. Waller’s 1934 recording captures his beautiful piano arrangement and mischievous vocals (‘The Essential Fats Waller’ and other collections).
Modern version: Jason Moran
Inventive modern jazz pianist Jason Moran has recorded a huge range of repertoire from jazz history and beyond and paid tribute to Fats Waller on his 2014 album ‘All Rise: An Elegy For Fats Waller’.
Here he sets Waller’s music to modern grooves, with bassist/vocalist Meshell Ndegeocello and other collaborators.
24. Mack The Knife – Ella Fitzgerald
Written by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in 1928, Mack The Knife isn’t the usual story of romance or lost love; it’s based on the story of an 18th Century English thief!
The oldest jazz song on this list, it’s made its way to the heart of the jazz songbook, with swinging versions by everyone from Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson to Bobby Darin and Dick Hyman.
Perhaps the best version is the 1960 live take from Ella Fitzgerald.
Recorded in Berlin, it not only showcases her trademark treatment of a classic jazz standard, it’s also notable for the fact she forgets the lyrics and improvises new ones on the spot!
Check out the full story of Mack The Knife’s murder and mystery, or find out which position it holds in our list of the greatest Louis Armstrong songs.
Recommended modern version of Mack The Knife: Kenny Garrett
This 1990 album entitled African Exchange Student is an early release from alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett around the time he was touring with Miles Davis.
His version of Mack The Knife is a down-tempo swinger showcasing his raw and bluesy yet precise improvisational style.
23. Cantaloupe Island – Herbie Hancock
Recorded and performed by many artists over the years, pianist-composer Herbie Hancock’s version of Cantaloupe Island is the definitive version for many jazz fans.
Released on his 1964 album Empyrean Isles, the song is a classic example of the hard-bop style vamps and laid-back groove that Blue Note popularised in the 50s and 60s.
Hancock is joined by Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Ron Carter (bass) and Tony Williams (drums) for the session.
Modern version of Cantaloupe Island: Lionel Loueke
Check out this stripped back yet grooving version of the song by African guitarist Lionel Loueke on his 2020 tribute to Herbie Hancock entitled HH.
22. My Favorite Things – John Coltrane
Whilst John Coltrane is perhaps more famous for the songs on his groundbreaking Giant Steps album, his performance of the old jazz song My Favorite Things reached widespread popularity on its release in 1961.
Originally written in 1959 as a show tune for Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, its open structure and memorable melody have made it a firm favourite for jazz musicians and fans alike.
This particular 14 minute version features Coltrane on soprano saxophone and really shows how far it’s possible to take the basics of a song and turn it into something totally unique!
Modern version: Youn Sun Nah
Korean singer Youn Sun Nah presents an altogether different version of this song on her 2010 album Same Girl.
Slow, pensive and accompanied by a single bell-like instrument, it brings a whole new meaning to the lyrics.
21. Take Five – Dave Brubeck
Pianist Dave Brubeck’s album Time Out, released by Columbia records in 1959, was groundbreaking for its extensive use of unusual time signatures.
Becoming the first album to sell over one million copies, its most famous track was the song Take Five in (as you probably guessed) ‘5/4 time.’
Famous for its two chord vamp, (usually Ebm7 and Bbm7) it’s catchy melody and structure has seen it absorbed into the standard repertoire of jazz musicians around the world.
It is as frequently-recommended as one of the most essential jazz albums for beginners, blending an easy-listening quality with serious jazz pedigree.
Modern version: Sinne Eeg
Danish vocalist Sinne Eeg presents a stripped back version of this song – complete with lyrics – on her 2021 duo album staying in touch.
A great way of hearing a completely fresh reinterpretation of a song you’ve probably heard a million times!
20. God Bless The Child – Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday wrote this classic jazz song with Arthur Herzog Jr., a frequent collaborator.
It has strong religious overtones and the title lyric refers to something her mother said to her in the course of an argument.
Billie Holiday recorded it three times, and the 1950 version with orchestra and chorus gives it a spiritual-like quality. This proves an excellent setting for one of the great vocal stylists.
Many artists in jazz and beyond have covered the song including Sonny Rollins, the jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Aretha Franklin.
Modern version: Keith Jarrett
As a musician who has frequently built performances around grooves and vamps, Keith Jarrett gives a great reworking of this song on his legendary album Standards Vol. 1 alongside Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette.
19. How High The Moon – Ella Fitzgerald
This song is known to jazz musicians as a swinging Broadway show tune and as its alter-ego ‘Ornithology’, the bebop head that Charlie Parker composed over its chord progression.
The earliest version recorded was by Benny Goodman & His Orchestra, but it’s Ella Fitzgerald’s take on it that stands out in jazz history.
She often sang How High The moon and its contrafact Ornithology as one song, following her vocal with an incredible scat performance.
Check out this treatment on the 1955 album ‘Lullabies Of Birdland’ and the 1960 live recording ‘Ella in Berlin’.
Modern Version: Diane Reeves
The song is a favourite of vocalist Dianne Reeves, who sings it over a latin-infused ostinato for the 1991 Blue Note album ‘I Remember’.
She also recorded a relaxed and intimate version for the soundtrack of ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’, a movie set in the 1950s.
18. Stella By Starlight – Miles Davis
Composed by Victor Young for the 1944 film ‘The Uninvited’, ‘Stella’ was soon picked up by jazz musicians as a favourite song, as we wrote about here.
Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, Chet Baker and Nat King Cole were among the first to record it, but it is perhaps Miles Davis’ deep, 13-minute, dive into it for his album ‘My Funny Valentine‘ which stands out most.
For this emotive 1964 recording he is joined by saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Herbie Hancock, bass player Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams.
Modern version: Bill Charlap
The 2010 album ‘I’m Old Fashioned’ finds the consummate mainstream jazz pianist Bill Charlap stretching out on this familiar standard.
Completing his trio are guitarist Peter Bernstein and the former Jazz Messenger Peter Washington on bass.
17. St. Thomas – Sonny Rollins
This joyful, calypso-inspired piece is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser and notable in this list as one of the few latin-influenced songs.
One of the most famous saxophone players of all time, Sonny Rollins is credited as the composer, although its origins are from the Virgin Islands and further back as an English folk song.
He first recorded it on ‘Saxophone Colossus’, released in 1956 on the Prestige label, which remains the definitive version of it to this day!
This version is notable for his masterful tenor solo, which he gradually builds from two notes, and for Max Roach’s drumming.
Modern version: Chad Lefkowitz-Brown and the Global Big Band
On the 2021 remote recording ‘Open World’, tenor stars Chad Lefkowitz-Brown and Melissa Aldana duel on a reharmonised St. Thomas, soloing over shifting time signatures.
16. Ain’t Misbehavin – Fats Waller
One of the most famous early examples of Stride piano, Ain’t Misbehavin’ was written back in 1929 with Andy Razaf contributing lyrics to the music written by Harry Brooks and Fats Waller himself.
Whilst many people know the famous Louis Armstrong versions of this song, the original Fats Waller version is well worth discovering.
Relatively slow compared to future versions, it’s an almost sentimental version in piano trio format, with the piano playing the melody first, before the vocals join in.
Find this, and more in our round up some of Fats Waller’s most popular songs.
Modern Version: Anthony Strong
The British singer-pianist has built a reputation as a musician who is equally at home reinterpreting jazz classics as performing soul-infused Motown songs and original compositions.
His 2019 version of Ain’t Misbehavin’ sees him joined by full big band for an explosive performance.
15. Take The “A” Train – Duke Ellington
Billy Strayhorn composed this for Duke Ellington and it became one of the most popular numbers in his band’s book. Bright and joyful, it perfectly conveys the journey to Harlem in bustling New York.
The classic 1941 recording begins with Duke’s piano introduction and is a tour de force of big band writing, with sax soli, muted trumpets and many other distinctive parts.
This was one of the best editions of the Ellington orchestra, featuring trumpeter Cootie Williams, saxophonists Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster, and bass player Jimmy Blanton.
Modern version: Dewey Redman featuring Joshua Redman
Father and son tenor players Dewey and Joshua Redman expertly deconstruct the melody on the 2011 album ‘African Venus’.
14. So What – Miles Davis
Miles Davis composed this for his 1959 album Kind Of Blue, widely considered the most important jazz album of all time.
Like the whole recording, it is revolutionary in its simplicity, using just two chords.
After some abstract interplay between pianist Bill Evans and bass player Paul Chambers, the bass states the melody, making a call and response with the horns – Miles with Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane no less.
Modern version: Ronny Jordan
The late British guitarist Ronnie Jordan introduced ‘So What’ to a new audience in the 1990s with a dance-floor-friendly version. It remains a popular play on jazz radio stations.
13. On The Sunny Side of the Street – Dizzy Gillespie
“On The Sunny Side of the Street” was composed by Jimmy McHugh, with lyrics by Dorothy Fields, although a long-standing rumour suggests that pianist Fats Waller actually wrote the song before selling the rights for some quick cash.
It was introduced in the 1930 Broadway show International Revue, which was a critical and commercial failure, despite producing two popular jazz standards in this and “Exactly Like You“, another classic by McHugh and Fields.
The uplifting lyrics of the piece are about looking on the bright side, no matter what life throws at you, and the song remains a particular favourite of traditional and Dixieland jazz musicians.
Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie sings the melody on his classic 1959 album Sonny Side Up, which pits saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins against each other on a number of ferociously competitive tenor battles.
Modern version: Bill Charlap
Classy American jazz pianist Bill Charlap gives this song the ballad treatment on his 2016 album Notes From New York on the Impulse! Label.
Yet another example of how the best jazz songs of all time can be reinterpreted in so many ways, with contemporary versions many years later still finding new angles.
12. Night and Day – Joe Henderson
Cole Porter is one of the great icons of the jazz age, his songs perfectly encapsulating the upper echelons of American life during the roaring ’20s and Art Deco ’30s.
Unlike most songwriters, Porter wrote both the music and the lyrics to his songs, combining complex harmony and structure with witty, urbane rhyming couplets.
Night and Day is one of his more serious numbers: a passionate love song, it declares an everlasting yearning for the subject. It begins with an unusual introductory verse, establishing tension with the repetition of a single note 35 times.
Fred Astaire and fellow singer and dancer Ginger Rogers introduced many Great American Songbook compositions via the highly popular films that the pair starred in together. “Night and Day” appeared in the Fred and Ginger picture A Gay Divorce (1934), with Astaire having made the first recording with Leo Reisman and His Orchestra two years earlier.
Joe Henderson turned the song into a vehicle for fiery modal jazz on the tenor saxophonist’s 1966 album Inner Urge.
On first listen, Inner Urge is not the kind of album where you expect to hear a true jazz classic. But, nonetheless, the final track on this 1966 album is a memorable rendition of Night & Day which explores areas not previously heard on this song.
Modern version: Kenny Garrett
Contemporary jazz saxophonist Kenny Garrett made a habit in his early career of taking standard repertoire and giving it a fresh lease of life.
His version of Night & Day is another example of this, performed with just double bass and drums for his chord-less album Triology in 1995.
11. All The Things You Are – Bill Evans
Jerome Kern wrote extensively for musical theatre and film and is considered one of the greatest American songwriters of all time.
All the Things You Are was introduced in the 1939 Broadway show Very Warm For May. The production was a flop: it only ran for a few months, as terrible reviews ensured that ticket sales were low.
However, the song made an immediate impact, with famed singers like Mildred Bailey, and major Swing era bandleaders Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey all releasing recorded versions that same year. It also appeared in the 1944 film Broadway in Rhythm.
Whilst there are countless classic versions to choose from, our pick of the bunch is Bill Evan’s solo interpretation for his 1963 album Solo Sessions. It’s pensive and exploratory, yet pulls out the beautiful and adventurous harmonic possibilities of the song.
Did you know? Michael Jackson recorded a somewhat surprising cover of “All The Things You Are” on his 1973 album Music & Me, which was released when he was just 14.
Modern version: Brad Mehldau
Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau recorded his take on this tune for his album Art of the Trio, Vol. 4 – Back at the Vanguard. The record features a wide range of repertoire, including fellow jazz classic “I’ll Be Seeing You” alongside a piano trio version of Radiohead’s “Exit Music”!
10. Straight, No Chaser – Miles Davis
No list of best jazz songs is complete without a blues, and countless jazz tunes have been written over the 12-bar form.
Straight No Chaser is playfully chromatic, as we would expect from the composer Thelonious Monk.
One of the classic versions is by Miles Davis, which concludes his 1958 album ‘Milestones’. It features solos by saxophonists Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, bassist Paul Chambers and pianist Red Garland, who cleverly reprises a solo that Miles himself had played years earlier on ‘Now’s The Time‘.
Modern version: Mike Stern
Mike Stern, a sideman of Miles in the 1980s, made a notable addition to the jazz guitar canon with his 1992 album ‘Standards (And Other Songs)’.
It includes a freewheeling trio version of the classic Thelonious Monk song with bass player Jay Anderson and drummer Al Foster, another veteran of Miles’ bands.
9. It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) – Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington is regarded by many as the greatest composer in all of jazz.
The pianist and bandleader wrote that this song was “the expression of a sentiment which prevailed among jazz musicians at the time.”
One interpretation of this, and one that is still much-discussed amongst aficionados, is that jazz can be incredibly complex and technically impressive, but remains all but meaningless without swing, genuine feeling and attitude: all qualities that are impossible to notate.
The “It Don’t Mean a Thing” lyrics are by Irving Mills, who managed Duke’s Orchestra for a time and shared writing credits on a number of Ellington hits, including “Mood Indigo“, “Solitude” and “Sophisticated Lady“.
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