You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby by Bobby Darin Brass Quintet - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1888306

Harry Warren (music) and Johnny Mercer (words) wrote “You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby” for the 1938 movie, Hard to Get, starring Dick Powell and Olivia de Havilland. It was played during opening and closing credits and was one of four songs Powell sang in the movie. Bing Crosby’s 1938 recording of the song was a big hit, then twenty-three years later it made the charts again when Bobby Darin’s version achieved top-five success. Many other artists have committed their versions to disk, and it has achieved the status of a popular music/jazz standard.

This brass quintet arrangement may seem to suggest the Bobby Darin version, but the actual aim was to frame it in the same artistic idiom as many of the other arrangements in the Sweetwater Brass Press “Turn of the Last Century” collection: upbeat, up-tempo, novelty, fun to play and fun to listen to. It retains the original’s key signature of E-flat and, after a rousing introduction, goes directly into the familiar chorus. The chorus’ last eight measures repeat, the tempo slows way down, and Tuba signals the introduction to the verse. The verse, which should be performed rather slowly, achieves certain musical effects simply and easily through several changes of time signature and tempo. Tempo picks back up again as the chorus is repeated, and the piece ends with a closing that is similar to the introduction.

All notes are within normal playing range of each instrument, and total performance time is about three minutes and thirteen seconds.
The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge. He would like to receive your suggestions, comments, corrections and criticisms. Contact him at lessmith5761@gmail.com. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the Sheet Music Plus or Sheet Music Direct search box.