"On the Sunny Side of the Street" is a 1930 song composed by Jimmy McHugh with lyrics by Dorothy Fields. Some authors say that Fats Waller was the composer, but he sold the rights to the song.^[1] It was introduced in the Broadway musical Lew Leslie's International Revue starring Harry Richman and Gertrude Lawrence.

Ted Lewis did the first recording of the song in 1930 (Catalog #2144-D), followed by Harry Richman (Catalog # 4747) and both enjoyed hit records with the song.

Other notable recordings

Having become a jazz standard, it was played by Louis Armstrong, the Nat King Cole Trio, Dave Brubeck, Earl Hines, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Erroll Garner, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, James Booker, Count Basie, and Lester Young.^[2] The Louis Armstrong version was recorded in the key of C major, but it has been recorded in a range of keys; Ted Lewis recorded it in D major and Ella Fitzgerald in G major.

Cover versions date as far back as 1930, when Layton & Johnstone released the song for Columbia. The song was recorded by Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby (January 21, 1946, with Lionel Hampton),^[3] Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Doris Day, Brenda Lee (1961), Frankie Laine, Keely Smith, Nat King Cole, Jo Stafford with The Pied Pipers (a No. 17 hit in 1945),^[4] Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Jon Batiste, and Rod Stewart. Arguably the most popular arrangement was by Tommy Dorsey and The Sentimentalists, which achieved chart success in 1945 reaching the No. 16 spot.^[5] In 1975, rockband Trapeze covered the song on their self-titled album Trapeze and it was also released as a 7" single but it did not chart.

In popular culture

The song was featured in the 1991 film JFK,^[6] the 1995 film Father of the Bride Part II, in an episode of the sitcom Frasier^[7] and in the fourth episode of the fourth season of Northern Exposure,^[8] in 1992.^[9] It was also used in the fourteenth episode of the third season of Cheers,^[10] in 1985,^[11] where several characters each sing part of the song one after the other, as if by contagion, after walking past each other.