Straighten Up and Fly Right: Piano/Vocal/Chords

This collection pulls together the songs that actually work in real performance contexts. Rather than obscure deep cuts, every title here has proven staying power with audiences and sits comfortably under the fingers of pianists at multiple levels. The chord symbols and complete lyrics make it immediately useful for accompanists, vocalists in recital, or pianists building a working repertoire of standards.

Opening this collection feels like stepping into an era when melody and harmony mattered above all else. Each song breathes with the confidence of music that has earned its place in the repertoire through decades of performance. The piano writing ranges from intimate and introspective to bright and swinging, capturing the full emotional spectrum of American popular music at its most sophisticated.

Pianists preparing for recitals, vocal accompanists building a working book, singers learning the Great American Songbook, and anyone looking to expand their repertoire with trusted, audience-friendly standards. Intermediate and advanced players will find the arrangements accessible and musically rewarding.

• Keep the arrangements conversational rather than rigid. These songs live in the space between notation and interpretation, so allow rubato and phrasing flexibility while maintaining the harmonic framework.
• Pay attention to the relationship between the vocal line and piano accompaniment. Many of these arrangements were written when pianist and singer needed to communicate musically in real time, so listen actively and adjust your tempo and dynamics responsively.
• Invest time in the lyrics even if you're playing the accompaniment without a vocalist. Understanding the emotional arc of each song shapes how you voice the chords and approach the melody line in instrumental moments.
• Experiment with voicing the chords in different registers. These standards are flexible enough to sound sophisticated in high, close voicings or warm and full in more open ones, depending on your piano's character and the venue.

Use this book to build a mixed recital program that appeals across generations. A single evening of three or four selections from this collection, paired with other genres, creates a sophisticated program. Many studios also assign individual titles as performance pieces for students ready to tackle standards with proper phrasing and interpretive maturity.

• Reading chord symbols and improvising or varying accompaniment patterns
• Balancing melodic support with independent piano voicing
• Phrasing and rubato in a jazz and popular music context
• Collaborating with vocalists and responding to real-time musical needs
• Interpreting the emotional content of a lyric through harmonic and dynamic choices