It's Only a Paper Moon is a standard composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg and Billy Rose, written in 1932 for the Broadway play The Great Magoo. Originally titled If You Believed in Me, the song was performed by Claire Carleton in a scene set amid Coney Island's carnival atmosphere, where the lyric's imagery of paper moons and canvas skies evokes the illusory nature of romance. The play closed after just eleven performances, but the song endured, retitled for the 1933 film Take a Chance and popularized by Paul Whiteman's hit recording that same year. The melody is built on bold octave leaps at the opening of each A section, followed by chromatic stepwise motion and quick descending arpeggios, giving the tune its distinctive whistleable quality. An ascending chromatic bass line drives the harmony through each A section, while the bridge provides contrast through subdominant movement and circle-of-fifths resolutions. The composition has become one of the most widely performed pieces in the Great American Songbook and a staple of the jazz repertoire, recorded hundreds of times across styles from intimate small-group swing to big band arrangements. Notable recordings include John Kirby's 1941 sextet version featuring solos by Billy Kyle and Charlie Shavers, Ella Fitzgerald's definitive reading, and Nat King Cole's popular interpretation. The tune remains a frequent choice for jazz vocalists and instrumentalists alike.
