Marla Dixon with The Shotgun Jazz Band: 'Pretend'

Lew Douglas, Cliff Parman and Frank Levere composed 'Pretend You're Happy When You're Blue' in 1952. Here, we see The Shotgun Band performing in the noisy setting of The Maison, New Orleans, in 2017. As you can hear, it's a standard 32-bar a-a-b-a song which they play in the key of B flat. The chord sequence is reasonably standard, but note that the Middle Eight begins on D7th, and that bars 21 and 22, which you could intuitively play on C7th, work surprisingly well on A7th. This song is included in The Shotgun Band's 2017 CD entitled 'Steppin' on the Gas'. The video was filmed and sent to me by my good friend David Wiseman. Sadly, David died at Christmas in 2021, so I am putting it up as a tribute to him.