Standards · 1943
My Shining Hour chords & key
- Key
- C major
- Form
- AB
- Bars
- 32
- Groove
- Medium swing
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Year
- 1943
“My Shining Hour” is a jazz standard by Harold Arlen from 1943. It is usually played in C major as a medium swing, and the 32-bar AB form has 2 sections. Harmonically it contains 4 major ii–V–I cadences and 2 minor ii–V–i, uses 17 different chords and moves between the key centres C major, A minor and F major. In this atlas it appears on 4 album tracks.
Chord changes
Showing in: Concert (C) — C major
Changes as commonly played (concert pitch). Your band's version may differ.
Harmonic analysis
Most used chords
- Dm7×6
- Cmaj7×5
- G7×5
- Am7×3
- Bm7♭5×2
- E7♭9×2
Key centres reached by ii–V
C major, A minor and F major
History
"My Shining Hour" is a song composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Johnny Mercer for the film The Sky's the Limit (1943). In the film, the song is sung by Fred Astaire and Sally Sweetland, who dubbed it for actress Joan Leslie. The orchestra was led by Freddie Slack. "My Shining Hour" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song but lost to "You'll Never Know". The film was released on July 13, 1943. The song became a hit the following year by Glen Gray's Casa Loma Orchestra with Eugenie Baird as vocalist, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard "Best Selling Retail Records" chart. The song's title may have been a reference to Winston Churchill's speech to British citizens during World War II: "if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour." In the 1944 film Youth Runs Wild an instrumental version of the song plays during a scene with Kent Smith and Glen Vernon.
Read the full article on Wikipedia ↗ · From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Recorded on these albums
Standards with similar changes
Similarity of the chord progression, independent of key.
| Title | Key |
|---|---|
| I'm Glad There Is You 49% | F major |
| The Blue Room 45% | F major |
| Long Ago And Far Away 39% | F major |
| Dinah 36% | G major |
| Why Do I Love You? 36% | A♭ major |
| Just Friends 35% | G major |
| Ballade 33% | F major |
| It's A Lovely Day Today 31% | B♭ major |
Frequently asked questions
What key is My Shining Hour in?
My Shining Hour is usually played in C major. For B♭ instruments that is D major, for E♭ instruments A major.
Who wrote My Shining Hour?
My Shining Hour was written by Harold Arlen (1943).
What is the form of My Shining Hour?
My Shining Hour has 2 sections (AB) with 32 bars in total.
How fast is My Shining Hour played?
The usual groove is Medium swing.
What are the chord changes to My Shining Hour?
The opening bars are Cmaj7 | Am7 | Dm7 | G7. The full chart above can be transposed to any key.