"Way Down Yonder In New Orleans" is a popular song with music by John Turner Layton

Turner Layton

Turner Layton , born John Turner Layton, Jr., was an American songwriter, singer and pianist. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1894, he was the son of John Turner Layton, "a bass singer, music educator and hymn composer." After receiving a musical education from his father, he attended the Howard...

, Jr. and lyrics by Henry Creamer

Henry Creamer

Henry Creamer was an American popular song lyricist. He was born in Richmond, Virginia and died in New York. He co-wrote many popular songs in the years from 1900 to 1929, often collaborating with Turner Layton, with whom he also appeared in vaudeville.Creamer was a co-founder with James Reese...

. First published in 1922, Creamer and Layton advertised it as "A Southern Song, without A Mammy, A Mule, Or A Moon", a dig at some of the Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...

 clichés of the era.

It was performed at The Winter Garden Theater in New York in Act 2 of the Broadway musical production, "Spice of 1922." The original 1922 sheet music featured a drawing of a girl on a spice bottle on the front cover, referring to the musical in which the song eventually made its public debut.

The song has been recorded numerous times from the early 1920s into the 21st century. Notable uses have included being the theme song for the radio program "This Is Jazz" in the 1940s. One of the many in the swing era was recorded by The Andrews Sisters

The Andrews Sisters

The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews , soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews...

 and Al Jolson

Al Jolson

Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....

. The song was revived successfully in 1953 by Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...

 and Jo Stafford

Jo Stafford

Jo Elizabeth Stafford was an American singer of traditional pop music and jazz standards and occasional actress whose career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1960s...

. According to Dick Biondi

Dick Biondi

Dick Biondi is an American Top 40 and Oldies disc jockey. Calling himself "The Wild I-tralian", he was one of the original "screamers," known for his screaming delivery as well as his wild antics on the air and off. In a 1988 interview, Biondi related he had been fired 23 times; both fits of...

, Freddy Cannon

Freddy Cannon

Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. , known as Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", and "Palisades Park".-Biography:...

's 1959 version became the first record in the rock era to have a full brass section. It reached number 3 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

chart in early 1960. The song was performed by Harry Connick Jr. in a September 2005 NBC Katrina fundraiser, "A Concert For Hurricane Relief" that raised over $50 million.

Lyrics

The song tells of New Orleans, the destination which the singer desires. The chorus is:

Way down yonder in New Orleans

In the land of dreamy scenes

There's a garden of Eden

That's what I mean,

Creole babies with flashing eyes

Softly whisper with tender sighs— Stop!

Oh! won't you give your lady fair a little smile, Stop!

You bet your life you'll linger there— a little while

There is heaven right here on earth

With those beautiful queens,

Way down yonder in New Orleans.

Second chorus ending:

They've got angels right here on earth

Wearing little blue jeans,

Way down yonder in New Orleans.