Give Me The Night

donojazz62220 · #1 06-12-2011, 03:48 PM

I just bought Hal Leonard's Real Book IV and they have some great tunes in it. One of the tunes is "Give Me the Night" by Rod Temperton. George Benson made this into a number one hit.

However, in going through that tune there are a lot of questions I have about the structure. The key signature indicates G on the leadsheet, but as I poke around the web and youtube, I see people playing it in C#(Db).

The leadsheet shows chords as E-7, A-7, B-7, CMaj7. I guess this makes it a vi, ii, iii, IV. However, I see very few returns to a G (I), in fact throughout the whole song there is only 3 G-7s in the whole song and they are not where I would expect them in the progression.

So, all that said can anyone explain what's going on in the song; and has Hal Leonard missed the boat on the correct key?

I tried Transcriber on the George Benson cut and it looks like the first chord is a form of F-7. That would put song in C#/Db.

Would love to get some help from Reg or some of the experts about this song or maybe even a video explanation of the song...

Thanks

jd

kenbennett · #2 06-12-2011, 04:14 PM

OK, so your key sig is one sharp? That's G major or E minor. Give Me The Night is minor.

Benson plays it in F minor. (Relative major would be Ab)

The bridge sounds like a different key.

Just take your chart, play everything up a half-step, and you're right with George.

brwnhornet59 · #3 06-12-2011, 04:44 PM

I am looking at the Benson arrangement. The opening chord is F-9b5, You could look at it several ways. F-9b5 could be the 7th chord of Gb with an altered 9th. But the rest of the tune goes, A#-7, B#-7, C#M7. This would be from the key of G#, (Ab), making the F-9b5 an altered 6 chord. I do not see much variation in key until the chorus. There it modulates to F#.

At the end of the chorus there is some key changes going on. The chords, F#, E, E-11, G#-6b5, G#-6b5sus4, B-6b5, B6sus4, D#7, are shifting harmonically to fit the melody. When D#7 resolves, the song returns to G#

So overall where Benson is playing this is a 1/2 step above the key you are playing it in. You could get much more in depth with the break downs, but this should suffice to get you started.

Great tune with great tonalities.