ENDEIT

Standards

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes chords & key

Jerome Kern

Key
E♭ major
Form
AABA
Bars
32
Groove
Ballad
Time signature
4/4

“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” is a jazz standard by Jerome Kern. It is usually played in E♭ major as a ballad, and the 32-bar AABA form has 4 sections. Harmonically it contains 10 major ii–V–I cadences and 2 minor ii–V–i, uses 18 different chords and moves between the key centres E♭ major, A♭ major, B major, F minor and C♯ minor. In this atlas it appears on 3 album tracks.

Chord changes

Showing in: Concert (C) — E♭ major

A
E♭maj7G♭dim7
Fm7B♭7
B♭m7E♭7
A♭maj7Adim7
Gm7Cm7
Fm7B♭7
1.
Gm7C7
Fm7B♭7
2.
E♭6
D♭m7G♭7
B
Bmaj7
E7♯11
E♭m7A♭7
D♭m7G♭7
Bmaj7
Fm7B♭7
E♭maj7C7
Fm7B♭7
A
E♭maj7G♭dim7
Fm7B♭7
B♭m7E♭7
A♭maj7Adim7
Gm7Cm7
Fm7B♭7
E♭6Cm7
Fm7B♭7

Changes as commonly played (concert pitch). Your band's version may differ.

Harmonic analysis

10Major ii–V–I
2Minor ii–V–i
17ii–V moves
1Tritone substitutions
0Dominant chains
18Different chords

Most used chords

  • Fm7×10
  • B♭7×10
  • E♭maj7×4
  • Gm7×4
  • Cm7×4
  • G♭dim7×3

Key centres reached by ii–V

E♭ major, A♭ major, B major, F minor and C♯ minor

Characteristics

  • AABA song form

Recorded on these albums

1959 Oscar Peterson Plays the Jerome Kern Songbook
Oscar Peterson · “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”
1975 Rock Around the Bunker
Serge Gainsbourg · “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”
2009 Love Is the Answer
Barbra Streisand · “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”

Historic 78 rpm recordings

  • Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Gaylord Carter · Harback · Kern archive.org ↗
  • SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES Roberta archive.org ↗
  • Smoke gets in your eyes Hans Schreiber's Orkester · Raquel Rastenni · Jerome Kern · Hans… archive.org ↗
  • Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Ray Dorey · Johnnie Guarnieri trio · Kern · Harbach · 1947 archive.org ↗

Standards with similar changes

Similarity of the chord progression, independent of key.

TitleComposerKeyFormGroove
Milano 30% John Lewis C major AABA · 32 Slow swing
Why Do I Love You? 29% Jerome Kern A♭ major AA · 32 Medium swing
The Best Thing For You Is Me 27% Irving Berlin C major AABC · 36 Medium swing
Long Ago And Far Away 26% Jerome Kern F major ABAC · 32 Up-tempo swing
The Song Is You 26% Jerome Kern C major AABA · 64 Up-tempo swing
Dexterity 25% Charlie Parker B♭ major AABA · 32 Medium-up swing
Easy Living 25% Ralph Rainger F major AABA · 32 Ballad
I'm Through With Love 25% Kahn-Malneck-Livingston F major AABA · 32 Ballad

Frequently asked questions

What key is Smoke Gets In Your Eyes in?

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes is usually played in E♭ major. For B♭ instruments that is F major, for E♭ instruments C major.

Who wrote Smoke Gets In Your Eyes?

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes was written by Jerome Kern.

What is the form of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes?

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes has 4 sections (AABA) with 32 bars in total.

How fast is Smoke Gets In Your Eyes played?

The usual groove is Ballad.

What are the chord changes to Smoke Gets In Your Eyes?

The opening bars are Ebmaj7 Gbdim7 | Fm7 Bb7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Abmaj7 Adim7. The full chart above can be transposed to any key.