"I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" is a popular song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ted Koehler, published in 1932 for the Broadway show Earl Carroll's Vanities (1932).^[1] The song has become a jazz and blues standard. Popular recordings in 1933 and 1934 were those by Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman.^[2]

Notable recordings

Ethel Merman (September 29, 1932) (her first solo date and the first recording of the song, backed by Nat Shilkret's orchestra)
Cab Calloway & His Orchestra (November 30, 1932 - Brunswick 6460).^[3]
Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra (January 26, 1933, Bluebird 5173).^[4]
Lee Wiley & The Dorsey Brothers (March 7, 1933)
Benny Goodman & His Orchestra (Jack Teagarden, trombone, vocals, October 18, 1933, Columbia 2835D).^[5]
Louis Armstrong (1937)
Billie Holiday (recorded on April 20, 1939, Commodore 527A).^[6]
Jack Teagarden & His Orchestra (1939)
Lena Horne (1941)
Billie Holiday - Velvet Mood (1955)
Art Tatum - Still More of the Greatest Piano of Them All (1955)
Louis Armstrong - I've Got the World on a String (1957)
Judy Garland - Alone (1957)
Julie London - About the Blues (1957)
Billy Eckstine - Billy Eckstine's Imagination (1958)
Sam Cooke - Tribute to the Lady (1959)
Eileen Farrell - I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues (1960)
Judy Holliday & Gerry Mulligan - Holliday with Mulligan (1961)
Frank Sinatra - Sinatra Sings of Love and Things (1962)
Sarah Vaughan & the Count Basie Orchestra - Send in the Clowns (1981)

References

^ "Internet Broadway Database". ibdb.com. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
^ Whitburn, Joel (1986). Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890-1954. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. p. 515. ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
^ "The Online Discographical Project". 78discography.com. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
^ "The Online Discographical Project". 78discography.com. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
^ "The Online Discographical Project". 78discography.com. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
^ "The Online Discographical Project". 78discography.com. Retrieved May 1, 2019.

v t e Cab Calloway
Singles	"Saint Louis Blues" (1930) "Minnie the Moocher" (1931) "St. James Infirmary" (1931) "Nobody's Sweetheart" (1931) "Six or Seven Times" (1931) "You Rascal, You" (1931) "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" (1931) "Reefer Man" (1932) "I've Got the World on a String" (1932) "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (1933) "(Hep Hep!) The Jumpin' Jive" (1939) "Bye Bye Blues" (1941) "Blues in the Night" (1942) "The Honeydripper" (1946) "Little Child" (1956) "History Repeats Itself" (1966) "Minnie the Moocher" (1978)
Musical shorts	Minnie the Moocher (1932) Snow-White (1933) The Old Man of the Mountain (1933) Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho (1934) Cab Calloway's Jitterbug Party (1935) Alright (1990)
Band members	Eddie Barefield Danny Barker Mario Bauzá Chu Berry Jerry Blake Andrew Brown Doc Cheatham Cozy Cole Shad Collins R.Q. Dickerson Panama Francis Dizzy Gillespie Tyree Glenn J. C. Heard Milt Hinton Quentin Jackson Illinois Jacquet Hilton Jefferson Keg Johnson Claude Jones Jonah Jones Al Morgan Rudy Powell Ike Quebec Reuben Reeves Edwin Swayze Walter Thomas Ben Webster Morris White Lammar Wright Sr.
Related topics	The Cab Calloway Orchestra Blanche Calloway Camay Calloway Murphy Sunset Cafe The Missourians Cotton Club Hepcat Jive talk Zoot suit Jitterbug Cab Calloway School of the Arts "Hi-De-Ho"