Lazybones or "Lazy Bones" is a Tin Pan Alley song written in 1933, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Hoagy Carmichael. Mercer was from Savannah, Georgia, and resented the Tin Pan Alley attitude of rejecting Southern regional vernacular in favor of artificial Southern songs written by people who had never been to the South. Alex Wilder attributes much of the popularity of this song to Mercer's perfect regional lyric. He wrote the lyrics to "Lazybones" as a protest against those artificial "Dixies", announcing the song's authenticity at the start with "Long as there is chicken gravy on your rice".

Recordings

The song has been recorded scores of times over the years. Recordings were released as early as 1933 by Jay Wilbur, Paul Robeson, and 1934 by the Mills Brothers, and as recently as 2018 by Nellie McKay. It has been recorded by a variety of artists in a variety of formats, including country singers such as Hank Snow on the album ''Old Doc Brown'' in 1955, R&B artists such as the Supremes on their 1965 album ''The Supremes Sing Country, Western and Pop'', Leon Redbone on his 1975 album ''On the Track'', and even fictional characters such as the Electric Mayhem band on the ''Muppet Show'' in 1977. Jonathan King's 1971 revival was a top 20 hit in the UK and was played on US soft rock stations, earning a position on Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'''s Easy listening, Easy Listening chart, reached #34.Jonathan King's Lazybones chart positions
Retrieved November 2, 2012. King's version sold over a million copies around the world.

Notes

External links

"Lazybones"
- Lead sheet at wikifonia.org {{authority control 1933 songs 1971 singles Songs with music by Hoagy Carmichael Songs with lyrics by Johnny Mercer Mildred Bailey songs Jonathan King songs We Five songs Jazz compositions in B-flat major