The original lyric of “A Brown Bird Singing” looks like this:
All through the night there's a little brown bird singing,
Singing in the hush of the darkness and the dew.
Would that his song through the stillness could go winging,
Could go a-winging to you.
All through the night-time my lonely heart is singing
Sweeter songs of love than the brown bird ever knew.
Would that the song of my heart could go a-winging,
Could go a-winging to you.
The lyric of Peggy Lee’s recording is half as long:
All through the night there's a little brown bird singing,
Singing in the hush of the darkness and the dew.
Would that the song in my heart could go a-winging,
Straight through the night-time to you.
I am wondering:
(a) Has any other singer sung Lee’s version of the lyric?
(b) Has anyone discussed Lee’s reduction of the lyric?
I think the reduction pares the song down to its essence as it were; exemplifying Lee’s “less is more” minimalism, bringing a rather old fashioned song into the twentieth century. Having said that, I do like versions of the song that use the original lyric – for example, those of John McCormack and Maxine Sullivan.
