Eb minor · Camelot 2A · 108 BPM
In a Sentimental Mood
by Duke Ellington
- 108
- BPM
- Eb minor
- Key
- 2A
- Camelot
- 47
- Danceability
- 94
- Acousticness
In the Netherlands, the opening chords of "In a Sentimental Mood" became familiar to television audiences from the 1960s onward, when they were used as the theme for Simon Carmiggelt, one of the country's best known writers, as he read his columns on national television. The piece had been written by Duke Ellington three decades earlier, and its afterlife abroad gave it a second public far from the dance halls where it began.
Ellington composed the song in 1935 and recorded it with his orchestra that same year. He traced its origins to Durham, North Carolina, where his band had played a big dance in a tobacco warehouse. Afterwards a friend threw a party, and while Ellington was at the piano, two guests got into some trouble with two women. To pacify everyone, he later explained, he composed the piece on the spot, one woman standing on each side of the piano as he played.
Lyrics came from Manny Kurtz, though Ellington's manager Irving Mills took a share of the publishing and so received a credit alongside the other two. The first recording featured solos from Otto Hardwicke, Harry Carney, Lawrence Brown, and Rex Stewart. Versions by Benny Goodman and by Mills Blue Rhythm Band followed within a year, and Ellington returned to the piece often, recording it again in 1953 for Piano Reflections and once more with John Coltrane for their 1963 album together.
In a Sentimental Mood runs at 108 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.22 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 556 ms. It is in Eb minor, Camelot 2A, which shares its notes with F# major and mixes cleanly with Ab minor and Bb minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.