"I Got Plenty o' Nuttin " is a

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three ...

aria sung by the character Porgy from

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swan ...

's 1935 "folk-opera" ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...

''. The lyrics are by

DuBose Heyward Edwin DuBose Heyward (August 31, 1885 – June 16, 1940) was an American author best known for his 1925 novel '' Porgy''. He and his wife Dorothy, a playwright, adapted it as a 1927 play of the same name. The couple worked with composer Georg ...

, the author of the novel '' Porgy'' on which the opera was based, and

Ira Gershwin Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershovitz; December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the ...

. It is one of the most famous arias from the opera (along with " Summertime", " It Ain't Necessarily So", and " Bess, You Is My Woman Now") and it has been recorded by hundreds of singers and music groups. The aria expresses a cheerful acceptance of poverty as freedom from worldly cares. Porgy says he has the most important things in life, " 'Cause de things dat I prize, / Like de stars in de skies / All are free". Most of all, he's "got my gal, got my Lord, got my song".

''Porgy and Bess''

Porgy sings the aria in act 2 after he and Bess have been living together, expressing his new happiness.Patrick M. Liebergen, "I Got Plenty of Nuttin, ''Singer's Library of Arias'', Alfred Music, 2008, pp. 22ff. Like several other arias in the opera, it is implied that it is being ''performed'' by the singer to the other characters, in this case as a

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

song. As elsewhere in the opera, other characters join in to create communal engagement with song. In the view of

Joseph Horowitz Joseph Horowitz (born 1948 in New York City) is an American cultural historian who writes mainly about the institutional history of classical music in the United States. As a concert producer, he promotes thematic programming and new concert f ...

, Gershwin made "a banjo song with choral interjections, a community moment". Horowitz, Joseph, ''"On My Way": The Untold Story of

Rouben Mamoulian Rouben Zachary Mamoulian (October 8, 1897 – December 4, 1987) was an Armenian-American film and theater director. Mamoulian's oeuvre includes sixteen films (four of which are Musical film, musicals) and seventeen Broadway theatre, Broadw ...

, George Gershwin, and Porgy and Bess'', W. W. Norton & Company, 2013, pp. 6–7; 130. There is a short

reprise In music, a reprise ( , ; from the verb 'to resume') is the repetition or reiteration of the opening material later in a composition as occurs in the recapitulation of sonata form, though—originally in the 18th century—was simply any re ...

of the song at the end of the act, as Porgy sings cheerfully to himself after Bess has left on her fateful trip to Kittiwah Island. The principal musical phrase also appears later in the score as a

leitmotif A leitmotif or () is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of ''idée fixe'' or ''motto-theme''. The spelling ''leitmotif'' is a partial angliciz ...

signifying Porgy's joyful feelings, most extensively when Porgy returns after being released from prison. At the very end, a fragment of the principal phrase appears at the beginning of the final aria, "Oh Lawd, I'm on my way", to signal Porgy's renewed optimism and potential happiness as he sets out to find Bess.

Creation

The aria originated from Gershwin's suggestion that a light moment was needed at that point in the second act. Unusually, he sketched the tune before the lyrics were written, playing a rough version on the piano at a meeting with the opera's lyricists, his brother

and

. Ira came up with the title "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin. Heyward then asked Ira if he could draft out the aria, as he had never written words to an existing tune before.James M. Hutchisson, ''Dubose Heyward'', University Press of Mississippi, 2000, pp. 149–50. A 'dummy' lyric was created by Ira and Heywood's wife

Dorothy Dorothy may refer to: *Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name. Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Dorothy'' (TV series), 1979 American TV series * Dorothy Mills, a 2008 French movie, sometimes titled simply ''Dorot ...

—with nonsense words to help him remember the required rhythm for the tune. Furia, Philip, ''Ira Gershwin – The Art of the Lyricist'', Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 110. Heywood sent his rough draft to Ira, which Ira thought "had many useable lines", but was "awkward when sung". Ira polished it into a more singable form, while George perfected the music. Ira considered the lyrics to be a "50–50 collaborative effort". The original orchestration introduced a banjo, which was used for "lightly sounding the vamp-like chords against the tuneful and exuberant melody of the soloist". It has been noted that both the tune and the lyrics bear a significant resemblance to the Gershwin brothers' earlier hit "

I Got Rhythm "I Got Rhythm" is a piece composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and published in 1930, which became a jazz standard. Its chord progression, known as the " rhythm changes", is the foundation for many other popular jazz tunes su ...

Versions

The song has been covered by many musicians since its performance by

Todd Duncan Robert Todd Duncan (February 12, 1903 – February 28, 1998) was an American baritone opera singer and actor. One of the first African-Americans to sing with a major opera company, Duncan is also noted for appearing as Porgy in the premier produ ...

at the opera's premiere in 1935. Some of the most notable performers included

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...

(recorded March 29, 1936), Aaron Bridgers (1950),

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...

and

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

(1957),

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

(1957),

Pearl Bailey Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress, singer, comedian and author. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in '' St. Louis Woman'' in 1946. She received a Special Tony Award for the ti ...

(1959),

Carol Kidd Carol Kidd MBE (born 19 October 1945) is a Scottish jazz singer. Kidd was born in Glasgow, Scotland. She came to prominence in the mid-1970s, as the vocalist in the band led by vibraphonist / saxophonist Jimmy Feighan. In 1990, she released h ...

(1994). Robert McFerrin sang the role of Porgy, played by

Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier ( ; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Among his ot ...

, in the 1959 film. The official spelling of the title is not used in many of the cover versions. It is varied in numerous different ways, including "Oh, I Got Plenty o' Nuttin" (

Monica Zetterlund Monica Zetterlund (born Eva Monica Nilsson; 20 September 1937 – 12 May 2005) was a Swedish jazz singer and actress. She represented Sweden in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest with the jazz ballad " En gång i Stockholm" ("Once Upon a T ...

, 1959), "I Got Plenty of Nothin (

Diahann Carroll Diahann Carroll ( ; born Carol Diann Johnson; July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019) was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. Carroll was the recipient of numerous nominations and awards for her stage and screen performances, incl ...

, 1959), and the fully standard English "I've Got Plenty of Nothing" ( Julia Migenes, 1989).

References

External links

Willard White Sir Willard Wentworth White, Order of Merit (Jamaica), OM, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 10 October 1946) is a Jamaican-born British operatic bass baritone. Early life White was born into a Jamaican family in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingst ...

, from ''Porgy and Bess'' (Glyndebourne album, 1989) {{authority control 1935 songs Songs from Porgy and Bess Songs with music by George Gershwin Songs with lyrics by DuBose Heyward Songs with lyrics by Ira Gershwin Bass arias 1930s jazz standards Pop standards