First sung by Mitzi Green in the 1937 Broadway debut of Babes in Arms, “My Funny Valentine” is undoubtedly one of the most famous entries in the Great American Songbook. In the context of the musical, the lyric concerns Valentine “Val” LaMar, the show’s charming but “slightly dopey” protagonist. But the song’s gender-neutral lyrics, referencing the subject’s charms and endearing flaws, made it universal, appealing to a wide variety of popular singers. The playfully romantic lyric, set to Rodgers’ hauntingly bittersweet melody, launched “My Funny Valentine” into immortality as a jazz standard; the song has appeared on over 1300 albums performed by more than 600 artists, including Chet Baker, for whom it became a signature song.