Things Ain’t What They Used to Be
E714120
"Things Ain’t What They Used to Be" is a jazz standard composed by Mercer Ellington that has become widely performed and recorded in the swing and big band repertoire.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Things Ain’t What They Used to Be canonical | 2 |
| Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8134265 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Things Ain’t What They Used to Be Context triple: [Mercer Ellington, notableWork, Things Ain’t What They Used to Be]
-
A.
The Way It Used to Be
"The Way It Used to Be" is a pop song by American singer-songwriter Mike Posner that reflects on nostalgia and the emotional aftermath of a past relationship.
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B.
The Way Life Used to Be
"The Way Life Used to Be" is a track by Snoop Dogg from his album *Doggumentary*, reflecting on nostalgia and changes over time in his life and surroundings.
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C.
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
"Don’t Get Around Much Anymore" is a classic jazz standard composed by Duke Ellington, widely known for its smooth melody and nostalgic lyrics about lost romance and changing social life.
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D.
It Ain't No Use
"It Ain't No Use" is a soulful track by Stevie Wonder featured on his acclaimed 1974 album *Fulfillingness' First Finale*.
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E.
It's the Same Old Song
"It's the Same Old Song" is a 1965 Motown hit single by the Four Tops, known for its upbeat soul sound and enduring popularity as one of the group's signature songs.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Things Ain’t What They Used to Be Target entity description: "Things Ain’t What They Used to Be" is a jazz standard composed by Mercer Ellington that has become widely performed and recorded in the swing and big band repertoire.
-
A.
The Way It Used to Be
"The Way It Used to Be" is a pop song by American singer-songwriter Mike Posner that reflects on nostalgia and the emotional aftermath of a past relationship.
-
B.
The Way Life Used to Be
"The Way Life Used to Be" is a track by Snoop Dogg from his album *Doggumentary*, reflecting on nostalgia and changes over time in his life and surroundings.
-
C.
Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
"Don’t Get Around Much Anymore" is a classic jazz standard composed by Duke Ellington, widely known for its smooth melody and nostalgic lyrics about lost romance and changing social life.
-
D.
It Ain't No Use
"It Ain't No Use" is a soulful track by Stevie Wonder featured on his acclaimed 1974 album *Fulfillingness' First Finale*.
-
E.
It's the Same Old Song
"It's the Same Old Song" is a 1965 Motown hit single by the Four Tops, known for its upbeat soul sound and enduring popularity as one of the group's signature songs.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | jazz standard ⓘ |
| associatedAct |
Duke Ellington Orchestra
ⓘ
Mercer Ellington Orchestra ⓘ |
| commonKey | F major ⓘ |
| composer | Mercer Ellington ⓘ |
| era | swing era ⓘ |
| firstPerformanceContext | Duke Ellington Orchestra repertoire ⓘ |
| form | 12-bar blues ⓘ |
| genre |
big band jazz
ⓘ
jazz ⓘ swing ⓘ |
| hasNotableRecordingBy |
Ben Webster
ⓘ
Clark Terry ⓘ Count Basie ⓘ Duke Ellington ⓘ Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges ⓘ Ella Fitzgerald ⓘ Johnny Hodges ⓘ Mercer Ellington ⓘ Milt Jackson ⓘ Oscar Peterson ⓘ Stan Getz ⓘ |
| hasSubgenre | swing standard ⓘ |
| influenceOn | later swing and mainstream jazz repertoire ⓘ |
| isIncludedIn | jazz fake books ⓘ |
| isInRepertoireOf |
big band ensembles
ⓘ
jazz bassists ⓘ jazz drummers ⓘ jazz guitarists ⓘ jazz pianists ⓘ jazz saxophonists ⓘ swing musicians ⓘ |
| isStandardIn |
big band repertoire
ⓘ
jazz jam sessions ⓘ swing dance repertoire ⓘ |
| isTaughtIn | jazz education programs ⓘ |
| language | instrumental (originally) ⓘ |
| performancePractice |
frequently features blues solos
ⓘ
often played as closing tune ⓘ |
| styleCharacteristic |
call-and-response figures
ⓘ
riff-based melody ⓘ swing rhythm ⓘ |
| tempoRange | medium swing ⓘ |
| theme | nostalgia (in vocal versions) ⓘ |
| titleType | idiomatic expression ⓘ |
| typicalInstrumentation |
big band
ⓘ
jazz combo ⓘ |
| usedAs | vehicle for improvisation ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Things Ain’t What They Used to Be Description of subject: "Things Ain’t What They Used to Be" is a jazz standard composed by Mercer Ellington that has become widely performed and recorded in the swing and big band repertoire.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Things Ain’t What They Used to Be