Black Coffee

Vocalist Sarah Vaughan.
A blues song written in 1948; music by Sonny Burke and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster. Sarah Vaughan's 1949 recording on Columbia made the charts.



Perhaps the definitive bop version of this song is by Sonny Criss (alto saxophone):
www.last.fm/music/Sonny+Criss/_/Black+Coffee?autostart

Trivia: Lyricist Paul Francis Webster holds the record among lyricists for the most number of Academy Award nominations — sixteen.

I'm feeling mighty lonesome, haven't slept a wink.
I walk the floor and watch the door and in between I drink
Black coffee. Love's a hand me down brew.
I'll never know a Sunday in this weekday room.

I'm talking to the shadows from 1 o'clock til 4.
And lord, how slow the moments go when all I do is pour
Black coffee. Since the blues caught my eye
I'm hanging out on Monday my Sunday dreams to dry.

Now a man is born to go a lovin', a woman's born to weep and fret,
To stay at home and tend her oven
And drown her past regrets in coffee and cigarettes.

I'm moaning all the morning, and mourning all the night
And in between it's nicotine and not much heart to fight
Black coffee. Feelin' low as the ground.
It's driving me crazy just waiting for my baby
To maybe come around... around
I'm waiting for my baby to maybe come around.

My nerves have gone to pieces, my hair is turning gray
All I do is drink black coffee since my man's gone away.

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Another rendition by vocalist K.D. Lang
and saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr.