Lazybones (song)

Lazybones or "Lazy Bones" is a Tin Pan Alley song written in 1933, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Hoagy Carmichael.

Mercer was from Savannah, Georgia, and resented the Tin Pan Alley attitude of rejecting Southern regional vernacular in favor of artificial Southern songs written by people who had never been to the South. Alex Wilder attributes much of the popularity of this song to Mercer's perfect regional lyric.[1]

He wrote the lyrics to "Lazybones" as a protest against those artificial "Dixies", announcing the song's authenticity at the start with "Long as there is chicken gravy on your rice".[2]

Recordings

The song has been recorded scores of times over the years. Recordings were released as early as 1933 by Jay Wilbur, Paul Robeson ,and 1934 by The Mills Brothers, and as recently as 2018 by Nellie McKay.[3] It has been recorded by a variety of artists in a variety of formats, including country singers such as Hank Snow on the album Old Doc Brown in 1955,[4] R&B artists such as The Supremes on their 1965 album The Supremes Sing Country, Western and Pop, Leon Redbone on his 1975 album On the Track, and even fictional characters such as the Electric Mayhem band on the Muppet Show in 1977. Jonathan King's 1971 revival was a Top 20 hit in the UK and was played on US soft rock stations, earning a position on Billboard's Easy Listening chart, reached #34.[5] King's version sold over a million copies around the world.

"Lazybones"
Single by Jonathan King
B-side"I Just Want To Say "Thank You""
Released1971
GenreEasy Listening
Length2:10
LabelDecca Records 13177
Songwriter(s)Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael
Producer(s)Jonathan King
Jonathan King singles chronology
"Cherry Cherry"
(1970)		 "Lazybones"
(1971)		 "Hooked on a Feeling"
(1971)

Notes
  1. Wilder, Alex (1990). American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-501445-6.
  2. Furia, Philip (1992). Poets of Tin Pan Alley. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507473-4.
  3. NPR: "We Love Nellie McKay"
  4. LP Discography
  5. Jonathan King's Lazybones chart positions Retrieved November 2, 2012.
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