Sing for Your Supper
"Sing for Your Supper" | |
---|---|
Song | |
Published | 1938 |
Songwriter(s) | Lorenz Hart |
Composer(s) | Richard Rodgers |
"Sing for Your Supper" is an American popular song by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. The song debuted in their 1938 Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse where it was done as a trio, with Muriel Angelus, Marcy Westcott, and Wynn Murray[1] performing an arrangement specially created for the production by Hugh Martin.
Background
The lyrics describe a singer performing to earn her meals: "Sing for your supper/And you'll get breakfast./Songbirds always eat/If their song is sweet to hear."
The term "sing for one's supper" long predates the musical. An example can be found in Act 2 of the 1607 play The Knight of the Burning Pestle, where a character states "let him stay at home, and sing for his supper, boy."
Recordings
The song has been recorded by:
- Benny Goodman & His Orchestra (vcl. by Martha Tilton 1938)
- Rudy Vallée
- Count Basie
- Mel Tormé
- Helen Humes
- the Mamas & the Papas included it on their 1967 LP, Deliver[2]
- Also in 1967, Cher included it on With Love, Chér[3]
Popular culture
Author Ethan Mordden used the title for his book Sing for Your Supper: the Broadway Musical in the 1930s.
References
- v
- t
- e
- Richard Rodgers
- Lorenz Hart
- Fly with Me
- Poor Little Ritz Girl
- The Garrick Gaieties
- Dearest Enemy
- The Girl Friend
- Peggy-Ann
- A Connecticut Yankee
- Present Arms
- Chee-Chee
- Ever Green
- Simple Simon
- America's Sweetheart
- Jumbo
- On Your Toes
- Babes in Arms
- I'd Rather Be Right
- The Boys from Syracuse
- I Married an Angel
- Too Many Girls
- Higher and Higher
- Pal Joey
- By Jupiter
- "Manhattan"
- "Mountain Greenery"
- "Here in My Arms"
- "Blue Room"
- "My Heart Stood Still"
- "Thou Swell"
- "To Keep My Love Alive"
- "You Took Advantage of Me"
- "With a Song in My Heart"
- "A Ship Without a Sail"
- "Dancing on the Ceiling"
- "Ten Cents a Dance"
- "He Was Too Good to Me"
- "I've Got Five Dollars"
- "Isn't It Romantic?"
- "Lover"
- "Mimi"
- "You Are Too Beautiful"
- "Blue Moon"
- "It's Easy to Remember (And So Hard to Forget)"
- "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World"
- "My Romance"
- "Little Girl Blue"
- "There's a Small Hotel"
- "Glad to Be Unhappy"
- "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"
- "Where or When"
- "I Wish I Were in Love Again"
- "My Funny Valentine"
- "Johnny One Note"
- "The Lady Is a Tramp"
- "Have You Met Miss Jones?"
- "I'll Tell the Man in the Street"
- "Spring Is Here"
- "Falling in Love with Love"
- "This Can't Be Love"
- "Sing for Your Supper"
- "I Like to Recognize the Tune"
- "I Didn't Know What Time It Was"
- "Give It Back to the Indians"
- "You're Nearer"
- "It Never Entered My Mind"
- "I Could Write a Book"
- "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
- "Ev'rything I've Got"
- "Wait till You See Her"