Do It the Hard Way is a show tune composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Lorenz Hart, written in 1940 for the Broadway musical Pal Joey. The show, with a book by John O'Hara, was groundbreaking for its unsympathetic protagonist, nightclub performer Joey Evans, and its willingness to portray seedy characters and situations in a musical theater context. The song appears in Act I during an ensemble rehearsal scene, its jaunty, syncopated melody underscoring the manipulative charm of the title character. The composition follows the standard thirty-two-bar AABA form that Rodgers and Hart favored throughout their prolific partnership, which spanned from 1919 to 1943 and produced over eight hundred songs across twenty-six shows. A holograph piano-vocal score in pencil survives in the Richard Rodgers Collection at the Library of Congress. Within the Pal Joey catalog, Do It the Hard Way is a lesser-known number compared to standards like I Could Write a Book and Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, but it has found a modest place in the jazz repertoire through vocal and instrumental interpretations. Chet Baker recorded it for his 1958 Riverside album It Could Happen to You, delivering both a vocal reading and trumpet solo that recast the brassy stage number as a cool jazz piece with a more intimate, laid-back feel. The tune has also been arranged for SATB choir by Paris Rutherford and recorded in a contemporary jazz vocal setting by the Jazz Renegades with Sarah Jane Morris, demonstrating its adaptability beyond its original theatrical context.
