"Lullaby of Broadway" is a popular

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

 song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 with music written by Harry Warren

Harry Warren

Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...

 and lyrics by Al Dubin

Al Dubin

Alexander "Al" Dubin was an American lyricist. He became known through his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren.-Life and works:...

, published in 1935. The song was introduced by Wini Shaw

Wini Shaw

Wini Shaw , sometimes credited as Winifred Shaw, was an American actress, dancer and singer. Although credited with a 1910 year of birth, she was actually born in 1907 as per the Social Security Death Index under her married name Wini O'Malley .-Early life:She was born as Winifred Lei Momi in San...

 in the musical film, Gold Diggers of 1935

Gold Diggers of 1935

Gold Diggers of 1935 is a Warner Bros. musical film directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley and starring Dick Powell, Gloria Stuart, Adolphe Menjou, Winifred Shaw, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert and Frank McHugh...

, and, in an unusual move, it was used as background music in a sequence in the Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

 film Special Agent that same year. It won the 1936 Academy Award for Best Original Song

Academy Award for Best Original Song

The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...

. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra version was popular at the time of release. Also in 1936, it served as part of the background music of the Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...

 cartoon Page Miss Glory

Page Miss Glory (1936 film)

Page Miss Glory is a 1936 cartoon produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions. The voices in this cartoon were provided by members of the Our Gang series...

, also based on a Dubin-Warren song.

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

 recorded this song on her Verve

Verve Records

Verve Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded by Norman Granz in 1956, absorbing the catalogues of his earlier labels, Clef Records and Norgran Records , and material which had been licensed to Mercury previously.-Jazz and folk origins:The Verve...

 release Ella Fitzgerald Sings Sweet Songs for Swingers

Ella Fitzgerald Sings Sweet Songs for Swingers

Ella Fitzgerald Sings Sweet Songs for Swingers is a 1959 album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, recorded with a studio Orchestra arranged and conducted by Frank DeVol....

, accompanied by the Frank DeVol Orchestra.

In 1951, Warner Brothers released a film of the same name

Lullaby of Broadway (film)

Lullaby of Broadway is a musical romantic comedy film released by Warner Bros. in 1951. It starred Doris Day as Melinda Howard, an entertainer who travels to New York to see her mother, and Gene Nelson as Tom Farnham, a fellow entertainer and Melinda's love interest. Gladys George appears as...

 starring Doris Day

Doris Day

Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...

. The Day version, backed by Harry James

Harry James

Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...

 orchestra, hit the Cashbox Top 50 the same year.

From 1959-1960, "Lullaby of Broadway" was the theme song of the syndicated

Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 television series, Johnny Midnight

Johnny Midnight (TV series)

Johnny Midnight is an American crime drama that aired for one season in syndicated from January to December 1960. The series stars Edmond O'Brien as the title character.-Synopsis:...

, starring Edmond O'Brien

Edmond O'Brien

Edmond O'Brien was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for his role in D.O.A. and his Oscar winning role in The Barefoot Contessa...

 in the title role as a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

-turned-private detective.

The song was recorded by Connie Francis

Connie Francis

Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...

 in 1962 and 1963, Caterina Valente

Caterina Valente

Caterina Valente is a singer, dancer, and actress. She was born into an Italian artist family; her father Giuseppe was a well-known accordion player, her mother, Maria Valente, a musical clown...

 in 1963, the Pasadena Roof Orchestra

Pasadena Roof Orchestra

The Pasadena Roof Orchestra is a contemporary band from England that specialises in the jazz and swing genres of music of the 1920s and 1930s, although their full repertoire is considerably wider. The orchestra has existed since 1969, although the line-up has frequently changed...

 in 1973 and Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

 and the Dixie Chicks

Dixie Chicks

The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...

 as a track for his 2006 album Duets: An American Classic

Duets: An American Classic

-Personnel:* Tony Bennett, guest artists - vocals* Bill Charlap - piano* Pinchas Zukerman - violin* Lawrence Feldman - flute* Chris Botti - trumpet* Paul Langosch - double bass* Gray Sargent - guitar* Harold Jones - drums* Johnny Mandel - arranger, conductor...

. It is also featured in an episode of Taxi (performed by Marilu Henner

Marilu Henner

Mary Lucy Denise "Marilu" Henner is an American actress, producer and author. She is best known for her role as Elaine O'Connor Nardo on the sitcom Taxi from 1978 to 1983.-Early life:...

) and the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 42nd Street

42nd Street (musical)

42nd Street is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin, and music by Harry Warren. The 1980 Broadway production, directed by an ailing Gower Champion and orchestrated by Philip J. Lang, won the Tony Award for Best Musical and became a long-running hit...

, originated by Jerry Orbach

Jerry Orbach

Jerome Bernard "Jerry" Orbach was an American actor and singer. He was well known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe in the Law & Order television series and as the voice of Lumière in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. As well, Orbach was a noted musical theatre star...

 playing Julian Marsh in the 1980 original Broadway cast.

Chelsea Krombach

Chelsea Krombach

-Biography:Krombach recorded two solo albums, Look for the Silver Lining and Profile Both of her albums are all-jazz and recorded live in one take with all real instruments...

 covered this song on her debut album Profile (2004).

Bette Midler

Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...

 recorded a cover of the song for her album Bette Midler

Bette Midler (album)

Bette Midler is the eponymous second studio album by American female vocalist Bette Midler, released in 1973 on the Atlantic Records label...

(1973). The song is performed as a medley with "Optimistic Voices

Optimistic Voices

"Optimistic Voices" is the name of both a song and the choir singing it, from the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Oz. The music is by Herbert Stothart & Harold Arlen and the lyrics are by E.Y. Harburg....

".

The song was used in a commercial for the Milford Plaza Hotel

Milford Plaza Hotel

The 1,300-Room Milford Plaza Hotel was the largest hotel in New York City when it opened in 1928. This historic Manhattan hotel remains among the largest New York City hotels in the heart of the Theater District, one block from NYC's Times Square. As of 2011, it is owned by the Ramada hotel chain....

, where it was called the "Lullabuy of Broadway".

The song was performed by the Muppets in the Gilda Radner

Gilda Radner

Gilda Susan Radner was an American comedian and actress, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which she won an Emmy Award in 1978.-Early life:...

 episode of The Muppet Show

The Muppet Show

The Muppet Show is a British television programme produced by American puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on 5 September 1976 and five series were produced until 15 March 1981, lasting 120 episodes...

.

Dianne Reeves

Dianne Reeves

Dianne Reeves is an American jazz singer. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.-Early life:Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan to a very musical family. Her father, who died when she was two years old, was also a singer. Her mother, Vada Swanson, played trumpet. A cousin, George Duke, is a...

 recorded it in 2003 on her album, A Little Moonlight.

In 2005, Idina Menzel

Idina Menzel

Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is widely known for originating the roles of Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked.-Early life:...

 recorded a pop/hip-hop version of the song for the end credits of ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway

ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway

ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway is an American documentary film, the first feature film directed by Dori Berinstein, a Broadway Producer, Writer and Filmmaker. Berinstein completed the film in 2005. The film premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival...

.