Amapola

Words & Music by Al Gamse & Joseph Lacalle, 1924
Recorded by Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, 1941
Vocals by Bob Eberle & Helen O'Connell



(E7)     A    A9      A            AM7   A
Am - a - po - la, my pretty little pop - py,

        AM7             A6 alt      F#m Cdim  E7
You're like that lovely flower, so sweet and heavenly.

         E7  E7sus4                     E7/9   E7
Since I found you, my heart is wrapped around you,

      B7           Bm7-5   Fdim    A      Edim    E7
And loving you, it seems to beat a rhap-so-dy.




(E7)     A    A9       A            AM7   A
Am - a - po - la, the pretty little pop - py,

      AM7         F#7    C#m7-5      Bm   Cdim
Must copy it's endearing charms from you.

        D        Fdim            F#m      B7
Am - a - po - la,       Am - a - po - la,



First time:

      E7                        A  Edim     E7
How I long to hear you say, "I love you."



Last time:

     E7                         A   D9     A     A6
How I long to hear you say, "I love you."

In 1939, Dorsey's Orchestra was signed to play for a weekly 15-minute radio show sponsored by Raleigh Cigarettes. Tutti Camarata, one of Dorsey's arrangers, worked out the style of featuring both vocalists in a single song in order to get maximum impact from the orchestra's vocalists, Bob Eberle and Helen O'Connell. Camarata evolved a format which would give Eberle the first half of the song as a slow ballad, then change to an up-tempo swing version for O'Connell. The same style hit repeatedly — first on Amapola, then later on both Green Eyes and Brazil.

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.