WHAT GOOD DOES IT DO ?
From the Broadway Musical "Jamaica" (1957)
(Harold Arlen / E.Y. Harburg)

Lena Horne - 1957
Tony Bennett - 1962


The Sun is full of liquor
The Earth is full of wine
Crickets doin' nip-ups
Brown columbine
The feeling is infectious
June is everywhere
Hearts, light and windy
'Cause Spring is in the air

Although what good does it do a guy
To know that June is in the sky
What good to know
That there are birds and bees
Composin' beautiful calypsos
In the eucalyptus trees
It's strange, but sad
When love go bad
The Spring that once come to tickle us
Now add up to re-dick-alas

And so I say
What good is April or June or May
What good are sonnets in the Spring
That you sing
Or cherries in the trees
That you see
Or lilies in the dell
That you smell
When you're alone
With June in the sky
What good does it do
Does it do or die

The smell in the dell
The rose in your hair
The thrillin' spell
And the whole mir-a-kell
Of the Moon in the velvet sky
What good does it do
Does it do, does it do or die



(Transcribed by Mel Priddle - December 2003)