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Lullaby of Birdland
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Wikipedia article
"'Lullaby of Birdland'" is a jazz standard and popular song composed by George Shearing with lyrics by George David Weiss (under the pseudonym "B. Y. Forster").
Background
George Shearing wrote "Lullaby of Birdland" in 1952 for Morris Levy, the owner of the New York jazz club Birdland. Levy had gotten in touch with Shearing and explained that he'd started a regular Birdland-sponsored disk jockey show, and he wanted Shearing to record a theme which was "to be played every hour on the hour." Levy originally wanted his own music to be recorded, but Shearing insisted he couldn't relate very well with it and wanted to compose his own music. They compromised by sharing the rights of the song; the composer's rights went to Shearing, and the publishing rights went to Levy.
Shearing stated in his autobiography that he had composed "the whole thing [...] within ten minutes." He did not add; the chord changes were from Walter Donaldson's "Love me or Leave Me."List of jazz contrafacts
Jean Constantin composed the lyrics to a French version, "Lola ou La lgende du pays aux oiseaux".
Musical characteristics
"Lullaby of Birdland" is in thirty-two bar form, and its original key was F minor (or A major). The song spends an equal amount of time in both minor and major modes. It follows a I – vi – ii7 – V7 harmonic progression, and it has a I – vi7 – ii7 – V7 minor variation.
See also
*List of post-1950 jazz standards
References
Category:1952 songs
Category:1950s jazz standards
Category:Ella Fitzgerald songs
Category:Bill Haley songs
Category:Songs written by George David Weiss
Category:Jazz songs
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