The song “My Funny Valentine” was written by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart for the 1937 Broadway musical Babes in Arms.

Quick Scoop: Who wrote “My Funny Valentine”?

  • Songwriters:
    • Music: Richard Rodgers
    • Lyrics: Lorenz (Larry) Hart
  • First appearance:
    • Written for the 1937 Broadway musical Babes in Arms.
  • First performer:
    • Introduced on stage by Mitzi Green in the original Babes in Arms production.

A bit of story behind it

“My Funny Valentine” started life not as a jazz club standard, but as a show tune sung in Babes in Arms , where the character sings to a boy named Val (short for Valentine). Over time, the personal, slightly teasing lyrics (“your looks are laughable, unphotographable”) and Rodgers’ moody, shifting harmony helped it escape the musical and become one of the most recorded songs in the Great American Songbook.

Later, artists like Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others turned it into a jazz classic, which is why many people now associate the song more with those performers than with its original Broadway context.

FAQ-style notes

  1. Is it a jazz standard or a show tune?
    • It is both: originally a Broadway show tune that evolved into a core jazz standard.
  1. Was it written specifically for Valentine’s Day?
    • No. It was written as part of the Babes in Arms story, about a character named Valentine “Val,” not as a holiday song.
  1. Why do so many artists record it?
    • The bittersweet lyrics by Hart and the haunting harmony by Rodgers give singers and improvisers a lot of emotional and musical space to explore, which keeps it endlessly appealing.

TL;DR:
If you’re asking “who wrote My Funny Valentine?” the answer is: Richard Rodgers (music) and Lorenz Hart (lyrics), for the 1937 musical Babes in Arms.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.