Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh had their first success as a songwriting team for the all-African American musical, “Blackbirds of 1928,” with songs like “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and “Diga Diga Doo.” Two years later, they wrote the perennial hit, “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” for “Lew Leslie’s International Revue.” Fats Waller had a thorny relationship with this tune as well as some others, because he was under pressure to sell some of his melodies (in this case, to McHugh) in the 1920s when he was short on cash. There are some drafts of it in his handwriting, and his son, Maurice Waller, gives an account in his biography of Fats, of his father's outrage whenever Fats heard “On the Sunny Side of the Street“ or “I Can't Give You Anything But Love.“ However, Fields' was undoubtedly the lyricist, and this song was perfectly in tune with Depression-era times in terms of compensating for the grim reality with its cheery, upbeat message. We hope you enjoy our version of it! ▶️ If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our channel! ▶️ If you like the music we play (four-hands piano, classic jazz, stride piano, swing, blues, boogie woogie, ragtime, and the Great American Songbook), please visit us here: ▶️ Subscribe to our newsletter: 🔶 Become part of our Patreon family! 🔶 Learn about the different benefits here: Thank you so much for watching! ✨
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