I made an arrangement of John Lennon's first attempt at a ballad. It turned out real nice. All I'm lacking are the 2 pickup 8th notes John sang a capella at the beginning of the song. John sings, "If I" as 2-8th notes and then the instruments and count 1 of measure 1 begin on the word "Fell".

For clarity, here's a link to the lead sheet that shows what I need to complete my arrangement in BIAB.

"If I Fell - The Beatles" Lead Sheet

FYI, besides John saying this was his first attempt at writing a ballad, Paul is credited with writing the Intro. By his own account, Paul was heavily influenced by all the Swing and Big Band music he heard growing up. I digress from my original question now to ask if anyone knows what American Jazz Standard he might have heard that uses this tight knit chromatic modulation device, all within four 1/2-steps?

For example, it begins in the key of Db on Ebm (iim of Db), then goes D, Db, back to D (the new key center tonic), then the typical ii-V in Jazz on Em to A. It's all chromatic within four 1/2-steps from the starting iim of Db (Ebm) right through to the new iim (Em) of the new key (D).

These were not 3-chord Rock 'n' Roll songs, by any means.

Thanks in advance, All!

P.S. Check out the unusual structure of this song. A more traditional 8-bar Into, followed by a 10-bar verse, then two 15-bar verses. A lot of early Beatles tunes were either 32 bar structure or oddball structures that didn't fall into the more traditional 8 bar, 16 bar, or 32 bar formats. You can clearly see the 10-bar first verse in that lead sheet link I posted above.

Last edited by johne1; 12/01/19 01:00 AM. Reason: Edited to improve clarity