Judy Niemack’s Vocal Jazz Repertoire List

100 Essential Jazz Standards

Finding and choosing songs is a magical, intuitive process, unique for each individual. We
usually choose songs based on hearing someone else sing it, finding it in a book, or having it
shown to us by a friend or teacher. Because I don’t want to encourage uniformity in the what my
students sing, when my students asked for a list of jazz tunes they should know, I hesitated. But
many of my students in workshops are absolute beginners and wanted a list of tunes to help
them get started. I decided to limit it to 100 standards, with the following note: There are many
wonderful songs that aren’t on this list, and every singer should search for those special songs that suit
them perfectly. This list will get you started learning a wide variety of well-known jazz standards
that make up the core of the jazz repertoire performed around the world today.

Tune and Composer

A Foggy Day (G. & I. Gershwin)

Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Waller, Razaf, Brooks))
All Blues (Miles Davis & Oscar Brown Jr.)
All of Me (Simons & Marks)
All of You (Cole Porter)
All the Things You Are (Kern & Hammerstein)
Alone Together (Dietz & Schwartz)
Angel Eyes (Dennis & Brent)
As Time Goes By (Hermann Hupfeld)
Autumn Leaves (Kosma, Mercer)
Basin Street Blues (Spencer Williams)
Beautiful Love (Young, Alstyne & Gillespie)
Blue Skies (Irving Berlin)
Body And Soul (Green, Heyman, Sour, Eyton)
But Not For Me (George & Ira Gershwin)
Bye Bye Blackbird (Henderson & Dixon)
Caravan (Ellington, Tizol, Mills)
Cherokee (Ray Noble)
Come Rain or Come Shine (Harold Arlen)
Darn That Dream (Van Heusen & DeLang)
Days Of Wine and Roses (Mancini & Mercer)
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (Ellington & Russell)
East of the Sun (Bowman)
Easy Living (Robin & Rainger)
Embraceable You (George & Ira Gershwin)
Everything Happens to Me (Dennis & Adair)
Fly Me to the Moon (Bart Howard)
Four (Miles Davis, Jon Hendricks)
Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You (Redman & Razaf)
Georgia On My Mind (Arlen & Gorrell)
Girl From Ipanema (Jobim, DeMoraes, Gimbel)
God Bless The Child (Holiday & Herzog Jr.)
On Green Dolphin Street (Kaper & Washington)
Here’s That Rainy Day (Van Heusen & Burke)
Honeysuckle Rose (Fats Waller)
How Deep Is the Ocean (Irving Berlin)
How High the Moon (Hamilton & Lewis)
How Insensative (A. C. Jobim)
I Can’t Get Started (Vernon Duke)
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (Fields & McHugh)
I Didn’t Know What Time it was (Rogers and Hart)
I Got Rhythm (George and Ira Gershwin)
I Thought About You (Van Heusen & Mercer)
I’m In the Mood for Love (McHugh & Fields)
I’m Old Fashioned (Kern & Mercer)
If I Should Lose You (Robin & Rainger)
Imagination (Van Heusen & Burke)
In A Sentimental Mood (Ellington, Mills, Kurtz)
Invitation (Kaper & Webster)
It Don’t Mean A Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing (Ellington, Mills)
It Had To Be You (Kahn & Jones)
It’s All Right With Me (Cole Porter)
It’s Only a Paper Moon (Arlen, Rose, Harburg)
Just Friends (Lewis & Klenner)
Just One of Those Things (Cole Porter)
The Lady Is A Tramp (Rogers & Hart)
Oh, Lady Be Good (G. & I. Gershwin)
Like Someone In Love (Van Heusen & Burke)
Lover Man (Davis, Ramirez, Sherman)
Lullaby of Birdland (Shearing, Forrester)
Lush Life (Strayhorn)
Mean To Me (Ahlert & Turk)
Misty (Garner & Burke)
Mood Indigo (Ellington, Mills, Bigard)
More Than You Know (Youmans, Rose, Eliscu)
My Funny Valentine (Rogers and Hart)
My One and Only Love (Wood & Mellin)
My Romance (Rogers & Hart)
My Favorite Things (Richard Rogers)
Nature Boy (Eden Ahbez)
Night And Day (Cole Porter)
Night In Tunisia (Gillespie, Paparelli)
On the Sunny Side of the Street (McHugh & Fields)
One Note Samba (Jobim & Mendolina)
Our Love Is Here to Stay (George & Ira Gershwin)
Over The Rainbow (Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg)
Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (A.C. Jobim, Gene Lees)
Round Midnight (Monk, Williams, Hanighen)
Satin Doll (Ellington, Strayhorn, Mercer)
Skylark (Hoagy Carmichael & Johnny Mercer)
Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise (Sigmund Romberg)
Sophisticated Lady (Ellington, Mills, Parrish)
Speak Low (Kurt Weill, Ogden Nash)
Stardust (Hoagy Carmichael)
Stella By Starlight (Young & Washington)
Stormy Weather (Arlen & Koehler)
Summertime (Gershwin, Gershwin, & Heyward)
Take The “A” Train (Billy Strayhorn)
Teach Me Tonight (Cahn & DePaul)
Them There Eyes (Pinkard, Tracy, Tauber)
Tenderly (Gross & Lawrence)
There Is No Greater Love (Symes & Jones)
There’ll Never Be Another You (Warren & Gordon)
They Can’t Take That Away From Me (George & Ira Gershwin)
Undecided (Robin & Shavers)
Wave (Antonio Carlos Jobim)
What Is This Thing Called Love? (Cole Porter)
What’s New? (Burke & Haggard)
You Don’t Know What Love Is (Raye & DePaul)
You’d Be So Nice to Come Home to (Cole Porter)
 25 Gorgeous Ballads:

Just in case you need another great jazz ballad, here is a goldmine of beautiful songs waiting to
be sung.

Born To Be Blue (Mel Tormé)

Every Time We Say Goodbye (Cole Porter)
For All We Know (Coots, Lewis)
Good Morning Heartache (Fisher, Higgenbotham, Drake)
Heart’s Desire (Dave Frishberg, Alan Broadbent)
I Cover the Waterfront (Heyman & Green)
I Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good (Ellington,Webster)
If You Could See Me Now (Tadd Dameron)
Like A Lover (Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Dori Caymi)
Listen Here (Dave Frishberg
Lonely Town (Bernstein, Comden, Green)
Mood Indigo (Elington, Mills)
Never Let Me Go (Livingston)
Prelude To A Kiss (Ellington, Mills, Gordon)
So Many Stars (Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Sergio Mendes)
Some Other Time (Leonard Bernstein)
Something to Live For (Ellington, Strayhorn)
The Midnight Sun (Hampton, Burke, Mercer)
The Summer Knows (Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand)
We’ll Be Together Again (Carl Fisher, Frankie Laine)
What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? (Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand)
When I Look In Your Eyes (Leslie Bricusse)
Where Is Love (Lionel Bart)
Willow Weep For Me (Ann Ronell)
With Every Breath I Take (Cy Coleman)