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"Black Coffee" is asong with music bySonny Burke and words byPaul Francis Webster. The song was published in1948.
Sarah Vaughan charted with this song in 1949 on Columbia; arranged byJoe Lipman, it is considered one of the most notable versions.[1]
Peggy Lee recorded the song on May 4, 1953,[2] and it was included on her firstLP recordBlack Coffee.[3]
It was included in thesoundtrack for the 1960Columbia Pictures featureLet No Man Write My Epitaph, recorded onVerve byElla Fitzgerald, also in 1960. The version by Ella Fitzgerald was a favourite song of PolishNobel Prize laureateWisława Szymborska who chose it as the song to be performed at her funeral.[4][dead link]
"Black Coffee"'s first two measures are nearly identical toMary Lou Williams' 1938 piece "What's Your Story Morning Glory", and both songs share melodic motifs drawn fromblues (including a strong melodic emphasis on the flat third and flat seventh intervals, known as "blue notes"). Williams felt that Burke and Webster plagiarized her composition, and reportedly considered taking legal action over the matter.[5] The two songs have significant melodic and rhythmic differences after the first two measures of their respective 'A' sections, and "Black Coffee" has a unique bridge section that has no parallel in "Morning Glory". However, during her piano solo, Williams plays both the identical feel and harmonies that appear on "Black Coffee," with dominant chords moving up and down by half steps in lieu of staying on the tonic chord. While not a carbon copy, Burke and Webster arguably picked sections of "What's Your Story Morning Glory" to string together to create a new song. Coincidentally, jazz trumpeter Paul Webster (no relation to lyricist Paul Francis Webster) was given co-writer credit for "Morning Glory" by Williams when she published her song in 1938.
Other versions of "Black Coffee" were performed by:
