Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You was composed by Don Redman with lyrics by Andy Razaf in 1929. Redman wrote the song during his tenure as musical director of McKinney's Cotton Pickers, the house band at Detroit's Greystone Ballroom, and the group recorded the original version for Victor on November 5, 1929, with Redman himself providing the vocal. The composition is an intimate jazz ballad with a haunting, softly melodic line that suits a half-spoken vocal delivery, its lyrics playfully cataloging the luxuries a devoted partner provides. Redman's arrangement featured the modern chordal voicings and expanded instrumentation that made him one of the most influential arrangers in early big band jazz, pioneering techniques that helped shape the Swing Era. The song gained renewed and lasting popularity through Nat King Cole's 1943 recording for Capitol, which reached number 15 on the charts in 1944 and updated the lyric from Packard coupe to Cadillac car. Other significant recordings include versions by Chu Berry with Hot Lips Page (1941), Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing (1944), and Billie Holiday at Carnegie Hall (1946). On AllSolos, the tune appears on Diana Krall's All for You (1995), her tribute to the Nat King Cole Trio, with transcribed solos by Russell Malone on electric guitar and Krall on piano.
