On the Sunny Side of the Street

On the Sunny Side of the Street is a pop song, as its author Jimmy McHugh ( melody ) and Dorothy Fields ( text ) on this day. It was written as part of the Broadway show The International Review of Lew Leslie, premiered on 25 February 1930 and published in the same year at Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.. The piece became one of the most popular jazz standards.

Features of the song

The song is held in the form of a song A- A'-B -A '. The continuously held in C major melody is cheerful; already in the first phrase of the A section to rise quarter notes to ( CDEG ) until it " a rollicking jump up to the high e risikieren ", giving the impression of strolling is supported on a road. The piece describes how nice it is to leave his troubles behind and go for a walk on the sunny side of the street. This side of the road, "that was in the days of segregation and discrimination against blacks that which was the whites reserved. " However, it is in the last part of the song also about inner values ​​, " the fictitious gold dust on the sunlit feet and the art without spending a dime to be as rich as the old Rockefeller. "

Effect story

Although Leslie's International Revue The 1930 listed only 95 times and considered a flop, two of their songs have survived; as that in the Review of Harry Richman sung On the Sunny Side of the Street also Exactly Like You became the Jazz Standard. How to Get Happy or Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries heard On the Sunny Side of the Street to the songs that were in the then world economic crisis to hit due to their optimism.

Already in February 1930 Ted Lewis took his orchestra on the song; he placed at # 2 on the American charts. Harry Richman also had his shortly thereafter published recording success and came to number 13 from 1943, the title to date again by movie musicals such as Nobody's Darling (1943 ), Is Everybody Happy? (1943 ), Swing Parade of 1946, which contained the song. In 1945, the song developed twice in the United States for Hit:

• Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra (1945 with arranger Sy Oliver and the vocal group The Sentimental Leftists, # 16)
• Jo Stafford (1945, with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston and His Orchestra, # 17)

Louis Armstrong, with its attractive text already at least since 1932 had the song in the program, it took the first time in 1934 ( after his copycats Taft Jordan ). Armstrong played On the Sunny Side of the Street twelve times a; through him he became the Jazz Standard. Furthermore, Helen Humes, Ida James, Billie Holiday sang the song, then Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Ernestine Anderson. But The Manhattan Transfer, Dinah Washington, Judy Garland, Keely Smith (1959 ), Frank Sinatra (1961 ), Willie Nelson ( 1978) and Barry Manilow (1994 ) provided cover versions.

Numerous instrumentalists such as Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Dave Brubeck, Erroll Garner and Dizzy Gillespie likewise interpreted the song. The song is also used in feature film lover for all eternity (1956 ) use.