BLACK COFFEE
SARAH
VAUGHAN
SONGWRTTER:
SONNY BURKE
COUNTRY: U.S.A.
ALBUM: BLACK
COFFEE
LABEL: COLUMBIA
RECORDS
GENRE: JAZZ
YEAR: 1949
"Black Coffee" is
a song. The music was written by Sonny Burke (based on the 1938 piece
"What's Your Story Morning Glory" composed by Mary Lou Williams), the
lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. The song was published in 1948. Sarah Vaughan charted
with this song in 1949 on Columbia.
Peggy Lee recorded the
song on May 4, 1953 and it was included on her debut album Black Coffee.
It was included in the soundtrack
for the 1960 Columbia Pictures feature Let No Man Write My Epitaph, recorded on
Verve by Ella Fitzgerald, also in 1960. The version by Ella Fitzgerald was a
favourite song of Polish Nobel Prize laureate Wisława
Szymborska who chose it as the song to be performed at her funeral.
I'm feelin' mighty lonesome
Haven't slept a wink
I walk the floor and watch the door
And in between I drink
Black coffee
Love's a hand-me-down brew
I'll never know a Sunday in this weekday room
I'm talkin to the shadows
One o'clock till four
And Lord, how slow the moments go
When all I do is pour
Black coffee
Since the blues caught my eye
I'm hangin' out on Monday my Sunday dreams to dry
Now a man is born to go a-lovin'
And a woman's born to weep and fret
And stay at home and tend her oven
And down her past regrets
In coffee and cigarettes
I'm moanin' all the morning
Moanin' all the night
And in between it's nicotine
And not much heart to fight
Black coffee
Feelin' low as the ground
It's drivin' me crazy
This waitin' for my baby
To maybe come around
(Sarah Humming)