Chords for Jessie Mueller Talks "On a Clear Day"

_ A lot of people who saw me as Carole King and Beautiful automatically assume that I'm from Brooklyn or Queens, you know, someplace in New York.
But it's not actually true.
I'm actually from just outside of Chicago, Illinois.
_ A little town called Evanston, Illinois.
_ [D] And I probably _ always knew [E] that I wanted to be a performer, [D] but I guess I _ really struggled [Em] with that decision.
I didn't know if I would _
[Gbm] _ find my place in the business.
I wasn't sure going off to college and [C] studying things if I wanted my parents [E] to help me spend all this [Bm] money to study something that's [A] basically a [Gbm] crapshoot and not like an [B] actual job to most people.
_ [Em] So by the time I decided that [A] this is what I wanted to do, _ [D] I was like, I'm going to go to school.
I'm going to study this.
[E] And then my plan is I'm going to go to Chicago [D] and I'm going to be a solid working actor _ _ or [E] a waitress.
I mean, it was sort of [B] one or the other, but _ my dreams were dashed and [Eb] I never got to be a waitress.
_ _ But _ _ _ I did I catered, I sold shoes, I did all kinds of things.
But it just goes to show you life can change very quickly.
And _ my life _ changed with a very simple little song [Ab] that was first introduced by Fred Astaire.
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ My day can be [Ab] a royal blow.
[Eb] _ It leaves me [Bbm] colder than the [Eb] basement [Ab] floor.
The only [Abm] moment I keep waiting [Gm] for is [Cm] when the [F] day will be through.
[Bb] _ _ [Eb] I never noticed if [Ab] it's dark or clear.
[Eb] _ What people say to me, I hardly hear.
The passing [B] hours are an [Abm] endless year [Eb] until [B] _ I'm [Cm] alone _ [Fm] with you. _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ I know, OK, cute song doesn't sound like a [D] game changer, right?
[Cm]
Here's the real [B] story.
I [Eb] was [Bb] working in Chicago doing a show there.
[Bbm] And my [A] agent gets a call from Jim [Dm] Carnahan, [Ab] who's this amazing casting director _ in New York City.
_ And he said, I [D] want Jesse [Eb] to come in for the show we're doing.
[Ab] It's _ [A] what [Bb] we're not calling it a revival.
We're calling it a revisal [Eb] of Lerner and Lane's On a Clear Day [D] You Can See [Ab] Forever. _
[G] Beautiful [B] show.
[C] Amazing score.
[G] It's about this neurotic woman who [Bbm] realizes she's lived past [Eb] lives.
Most [Ab] notably, this 18th century [Eb] British _ aristocrat _ _ stuff of hits.
Right.
[D] No, I'm kidding.
[Eb] _ And [Ab] so but [A] it was going to be [F] a revisal because in the original play,
the present life [Eb] Daisy and the past life Melinda were [D] played by one [Ab] woman, one actress.
[B] So in the new [G] version, _ Daisy was becoming Davy, [Db] _ a gay florist,
[Cm] _ [A] and his [Fm] past life was [Eb] Melinda, a woman, a 1940s jazz [Bb] singer.
_ [G] You [Eb] got it?
OK, _ so [Bb] I go into the [Bb] audition, prepare to sing.
_ [Cm] It might as well be spring. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] The [C] things I used to like, I don't like anymore. _
I want a lot of other things [F] I've never had [Cm] before. _
[F] _ _ [Bb] It's just like [Eb] _
mother _ [Am] _ says. _ _
_ [Dm] _ I [Gm] _ sit _
[G] _ around _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ pretending _ [Db] _ _ [G] _ I'm [A] _ _
wonderful.
[D] _ _ _ _ [Gm] And _ knowing _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _
_ _ _ [D] I'm as restless _ [F] as a willow in a windstorm.
I'm [C] _ _ as jumpy as a puppet on a string.
[F] _ _ _ _ [Bb] I'd say that [Bb] I _ [Bbm] had [F] spring fever, [D] _ _ _ [Dm] but I know [C] it _ _ _ [F] isn't _ [F] spring.
_ [Bb] _ _ [C] _
_ _ And Jim Conahan, the casting director goes, OK, OK, that _ was lovely. _
Do you have [F] anything _ more uptempo like a [Eb] jazz tune?
This happens in auditions sometimes you go in with the plan and then they [F] just give you [Bb] a 180.
And I was [C] like, in my head I'm going, [Eb] I do not have a jazz tune _ with me.
So I literally walked over to the pianist _ and I said, _ _ hi, _ can we _ make this an uptempo?
Can we swing this like from the bridge?
[Gm] I keep wishing you'd meet me [A] somewhere _ else, walking on a strange new street.
Work [Bb] with what you got, right?
[G] _ _ [C] _ _ [F] Perfect. _ _
[G] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Gm] I keep [Cm] wishing I were [F] somewhere else, walking on a [Bbm] strange new [D] street.
_ [Gm] _ Hearing words [E] that I've [A] never heard [D] from a man [G] up yet [C] to me. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
I'm [G] as busy as a spider, spending daydreams.
[F] I'm as good as a [Cm] babe in a swing.
[Bb] I [A] haven't seen a [Dm] crocus or a rosebud [C] or a robin [D] all week.
[G] But I feel so [Em] gay _ [Gm] in a _ melancholy _ way that [F] it might as [G] well be spring.
[Eb] _
[F] In my _ eyes, _ _ [G] _
we're _ [Gm] happy, _ _ [F]
straight.
_ _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ I looked at that pianist with the most thankful eyes. _
He had saved my audition and Jim, the casting director, was like, _ great.
Can you come back tomorrow?
And I said, _ no, I can't.
I have to go to a reading.
My friend wrote the thing in the thing.
I had no idea.
I was completely clueless.
He said, okay, well, can you fly yourself to New York next week?
Because the audition happened in Chicago.
I said, yes, yes, I can do that.
So I get to the audition and I go in.
I'm watching all these other girls come in and out.
Long story short, _ I get to the final callback.
By this point, _ _ _ we know that Harry Connick Jr.
is the star of the show now.
_ I know, ladies.
So I have had a crush on Harry Connick Jr.
since I was in eighth grade.
So I'm showing up for the final callback.
I've put on my red dress in the bathroom and _ put my hair.
I'm trying to do, like, 40s hair.
And I walk into the room kind of terrified.
And he's the first person I see.
And he just goes, hey, I'm Harry.
And, like, outstretches his arm and shakes my hand.
And, like, all the nerves went away.
He is, like, the kindest, most generous person.
And we did the scenes and the song.
_ And I left.
_ And I flew back home and I was on the plane to Chicago.
And I'm sitting there feeling like, _ I know this is a long shot,
but I don't feel like [A] this is over for me yet.
And I put in my [D] iPod.
I didn't think anything of it.
It was on shuffle.
_ [Bm] And on [D] comes Harry Connick Jr.'s.' version [Em] of a song called This Time the Dream's [A] on Me. _ And it [Gbm] just felt like a sign. [B] And _ I got the part. They gave [E] me the part. They gave nobody the [A] part. _ And _ [Em] _ that little song, Every [A] Night at Seven, _ thanks to our [A] brilliant _ _ [Em] composer and musical arranger Larry Uhrman, this is