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Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra - I Cover The Waterfront (Live @ Carnegie Hall) Verve Records 1956

4,094 views · Published 2 January 2011 · 3:51 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: RoundMidnightTV · 2011 · People & Blogs

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"I Cover the Watefront" is a 1933 popular song and jazz standard composed by Johnny Green with lyrics by Edward Heyman. The song was inspired by Max Miller's 1932 best-selling novel I Cover the Waterfront. The song became instantly popular, and many artists covered it in 1933: Annette Hanshaw, Abe Lyman's California Ambassador Hotel Orchestra, Billie Holiday, Connie Boswell, and Louis Armstrong, among others. A 1933 motion picture, also inspired by Miller's book and also titled I Cover the Waterfront, was re-scored at the last minute to include the tune. Sheet music publishers later used the film's success by claiming that the song was inspired by the United Artist Picture of the same name".

Billie's accompanied by Buck Clayton (trumpet), Tony Scott (clarinet), Al Cohn (tenor saxophone), Carl Drinkard (piano), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Carson Smith (bass), and Chico Hamilton (drums). Recorded in New York City, "Carnegie Hall", November 10, 1956. (Verve Records)

Away from the city that hurts and knocks,
I'm standing alone by the desolate docks
In the still and the chill of the night
I see the horizon the great unknown
My heart has an ache
It's as heavy as stone
Will the dawn come and all make it light
 
I cover the waterfront
I'm watching the sea
Will the one I love
Be coming back to me
 
I cover the waterfront
In search of my love 
And I'm covered
By a starlit sky above
 
Here am I
Patiently waiting
Hoping and longing
Oh how I yearn
Where are you
Have you forgotten
Will you remember
Will you return
 
I cover the waterfront
I'm watching the sea
Will the one I love
Be coming back
To me
Will the one I love
Be coming back
To me

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