Jazz trumpeters Cootie Williams and Dizzy Gillespie further embellished the song, with songwriter Bernie Hanighen adding his own lyrics. The lyrics were copyrighted November 27, 1944 under the title "Grand Finale". Both Williams and Hanighen received co-credits for their contributions. The commonly played intro to "Round Midnight" was originally composed by Dizzy Gillespie for the end of his arrangement for "I Can't Get Started", but later adopted it to the intro for "Round Midnight". Gillespie later reused the arrangement for "I Can't Get Started", and recorded it for "Birks' Works" and "Something Old, Something New".