This song is one of many jazz tunes Jeff has been arranging and including for members at Ukulele Corner Academy. Here we have bluesy rhythms and chord changes within a song structure that repeats but is different each time the melody reappears. But he incorporates fun jazz chord substitutions and a lot of improvisation along the way. Jeff’s arrangement keeps the melody intact throughout. Georgia on My Mind for Fingerstyle Ukuleleīecause this tune is already a “hauntingly sweet song” it lends itself naturally to the sweet tones of the ukulele. Whether “Georgia” referred to a girl or the state is a question left unanswered. Hoagy Carmichael and I, in a third floor apartment overlooking 52nd Street, with cold feet and warm hearts, looked out the window and, not liking what we saw, turned our thoughts to the pleasant Southland.
But the song really came into popularity in 1960 when Ray Charles first recorded it.Īccording to Gorrell in a letter to the Bremen Enquirer in 1961,
“Georgia on My Mind” was written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930. In this video Jeff Peterson plays his arrangement of the popular jazz standard “Georgia on My Mind” for fingerstyle ukulele.
