"Lush Life" is a jazz standard that was written by Billy Strayhorn from 1933 to 1936. It was performed publicly for the first time by Strayhorn and vocalist Kay Davis with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Carnegie Hall on November 13, 1948.^[1]

Background

The lyric describes the author's weariness of the night life after a failed romance, wasting time with "jazz and cocktails" at "come-what-may places" and in the company of girls with "sad and sullen gray faces/with distingué traces". Strayhorn was a teenager when he wrote most of the song, which was to become his signature composition (along with "Take the 'A' Train").

The song was written in the key of D-flat major.^[1] The melody is over relatively complex chord changes, compared with many jazz standards, with chromatic movement and modulations that evoke a dreamlike state and the dissolute spirit characteristic of the "lush life."

During a 1949 interview, Strayhorn spoke of the song’s genesis: “’Lush Life’ wasn’t the first tune of mine Duke [Ellington] heard. In fact, he didn’t hear it until just a little while ago. I wrote it in 1936 while I was clerking at the Pennfield drugstore on the corner of Washington and Penn in Pittsburgh….I was writing a song a day then, and I’ve forgotten many of them myself….One night I remembered it and played it for Duke….I called it 'Life is Lonely,’ but when anyone wanted me to play it they’d ask for ‘that thing about lush life’.”^[2]

Nat King Cole performed "Lush Life" in 1949, while trumpeter Harry James recorded it four times. In the 1950s, it was performed by jazz vocalists Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan [Chris Connor]. John Coltrane recorded it twice. The first was a 14-minute version in recorded in 1958 as the title track of an album for Prestige. The other was on John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, with vocalist Johnny Hartman, recorded in 1963. Kurt Elling recorded a version for his album Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman. Frank Sinatra attempted to record a version of it for his 1958 ‘Only the Lonely’ album but never finished a complete version. The unfinished takes of Sinatra singing ‘Lush Life’ were eventually officially released on the 60th anniversary rerelease of the album. ^[1]

Linda Ronstadt's version won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) (1986).

Other versions

• Chris Connor – Chris Connor Sings Lullabys For Lovers (1954)
• Billy Eckstine – No Cover, No Minimum (1960)
• Johnny Hartman – John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Impulse!, 1963), Thank You for Everything (1998), rec. 1976
• Jack Jones – Where Love Has Gone (1964)
• Nancy Wilson – Lush Life (1967)
• Bud Powell – "Strictly" Powell Vol. 1 (1975)
• Donna Hightower – El Jazz y Donna Hightower (1975)
• Donna Summer – Donna Summer produced by Quincy Jones (1982)
• Rickie Lee Jones – Girl at Her Volcano (1983)
• Rare Silk – New Weave (1983)
• Joe Pass – Virtuoso No. 4 (1983, recorded in 1973)^[3]
• Tony Scott – Lush Life and Lush Life Volume 2 (1989) – 13 interpretations of the song; from the liner notes: "An homage to Billy Strayhorn's 'Lush Life', an obsession, fullfilled (sic) by Tony Scott"
• Natalie Cole – Unforgettable... with Love (1991)
• Eileen Farrell – It's Over (1991)
• Tina May – Tina May – Never Let Me Go (1992)
• Geri Allen – The Life of a Song (2004)
• Queen Latifah – The Dana Owens Album (2004)
• Lady Gaga – Cheek to Cheek (2014)