Bluesette

"Bluesette" is a jazz waltz by the Belgian harmonica player and guitarist Toots Thielemans, first recorded in 1961, with lyrics later added by Norman Gimbel. This page has the Bluesette chords and a backing track you can slow down, speed up and transpose.

Who wrote "Bluesette"

Toots Thielemans wrote the music. He first recorded it in 1961, playing the melody on guitar and whistling along in unison, a sound that became his trademark. The tune caught on with jazz musicians and with the public, and Norman Gimbel wrote English lyrics for it.

Recordings that made it a standard

• Toots Thielemans (1961) — the original, with guitar and whistling, which became an international hit.
• Toots Thielemans, on harmonica — the composer kept the tune in his concerts for the rest of his long career, increasingly on the chromatic harmonica.