On The Sunny Side Of The Street

On the Sunny Side of the Street was composed by Jimmy McHugh with lyrics by Dorothy Fields in 1930, though some jazz historians have suggested that Fats Waller may have originally written the melody and sold the rights to McHugh during financial difficulties in the late 1920s. The song was introduced by Harry Richman in the Broadway revue Lew Leslie's International Revue on February 25, 1930. Although the show ran for only ninety-five performances, it produced two enduring standards, this tune and Exactly Like You. Ted Lewis made the first recording in 1930, scoring a hit alongside Richman's own version. The composition's bright, optimistic melody proved remarkably adaptable, supporting interpretations ranging from intimate vocal treatments to hard-swinging jazz arrangements. Louis Armstrong's classic 1934 studio recording became so closely associated with the song that it shaped how subsequent musicians approached the material. Tommy Dorsey and The Sentimentalists had a popular chart hit with the tune in 1945. On AllSolos, the song is represented across several landmark recordings, including the 1957 Sonny Side Up session where Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, and Sonny Rollins traded ideas on what AllMusic called one of the most exciting jam session records in the jazz catalog, and Lester Young's 1952 session The President Plays. On the Sunny Side of the Street has remained a cornerstone of the jazz repertoire, recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, and countless others across nearly a century.