You Took Advantage of Me (arr. Aaron Dale): TTBB Choral Octavo

Aaron Dale's arrangement captures the wry humor and sophistication of this standard while keeping the harmonic language accessible to a collegiate or advanced high school choir. The flexibility in voicing (TB/TTB/TBB/TTBB) means you can adapt this to whatever your ensemble looks like rather than forcing roster changes around the music. It's the kind of piece that reminds singers why the Great American Songbook matters: clever, singable, and genuinely fun to perform.

A wry, slightly indignant conversation set to melody; the music has warmth and sophistication without pretension. There's a lightness underneath the lyrics that keeps it from becoming sentimental, even as the harmonies give it real emotional depth.

Collegiate barbershop ensembles, advanced secondary choirs looking to program a standard with harmonic substance, and any group wanting to add a well-crafted male-voiced arrangement of classic American song to their library. The voicing flexibility makes it workable for groups with shifting roster composition.

• Shape the text comedically. The lyrical premise hinges on complaint masquerading as submission, so let the irony sit in your singers' voices rather than overselling emotion.
• Balance the bass and tenor lines carefully in the harmonic sections. Dale's voicing depends on clear support underneath, especially where the melody sits high.
• Treat the rhythmic coordination like a conversation. These kinds of swing-era standards need just enough lift to breathe without losing the intimate humor of the lyric.

Pair this with other Rodgers and Hart standards to build a focused thematic concert, or use it as a contrasting piece in a program that mixes Broadway with contemporary choral repertoire. The seven pages make it manageable to rehearse alongside weightier material, and its entertainment value works well as a second half opener or penultimate selection.

• Interpreting text with irony and subtle character work
• Balancing written harmony with clear voice leading
• Negotiating swing-era rhythmic phrasing in a choral context
• Ensemble coordination in passages with interlocking melodic lines