Level: 3
Tuning: Standard

Following his 1932 comeback hit, "Say It Isn't So," Irving Berlin scored again, the same year, with "How Deep Is the Ocean," in which every line but one is a question. The song was a hit four times over in 1932, and instrumental versions in the 1940s by Benny Goodman and Coleman Hawkins established it as a jazz standard. Like "Blue Skies," it starts in a minor key (Am in this arrangement) but winds up in the relative major key (C). The song has a 32 bar form, in which a 16 bar phrase is stated, the first 8 bars of it are repeated, and the last 8 bars are a new statement. As with many of Berlin's classic tunes, the chord changes are not standard, and they take some ingenious twists and turns, creating a melancholy, wistful mood.