Indian Summer

Words & Music by Al Dubin & Victor Herbert*
Recorded by Tommy Dorsey, 1940 (#1), vocal by Frank Sinatra


D       Bb9  Em7          A7+5    D       Bb9  Em7
Summer,           you old Indian Summer,

           A7              DM7   Fdim        Em7      Edim
You're the tear that comes after Junetime's laughter.

    Em7          A7         A7/6        Bm  Bm7
You see so many dreams that don't come true,

G         Bm7-5           E7             A7   Bm7-5   A7
Dreams we fashioned when Summertime was new.


        A7+5          D    Bb9 Em7      A7+5          D    Bb9 Em7
You are here to watch over        some heart that is broken

     A7        D6       Fdim    Em7     Edim  G
By a word that somebody left unspoken.

            A7         D  D6  D   B7   Em7      A7
You're the ghost of a romance in June going a - stray,

F#m7        B7    Em7         A7+5
Fading too soon, that's why I say,

 D    B7  Em7       A7+5   Fdim  D
"Farewell    to you Indian Sum - mer."

* Herbert wrong the music to this song in 1919 for piano, titling it "An American Idyll." Dubin added the lyric 20 years later, and Tommy Dorsey's orchestra recorded it the following year. Recording credit went to the Tommy Dorsey orchestra on Hit Parade lists; had it been recorded even a few years later, it would have carried Sinatra's name as the recording artist.

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.