“Lullaby of the Leaves,” by composer Bernice Petkere and lyricist Joe Young, was featured in the 1932 Broadway revue Chamberlain Brown’s Scrap Book. Ina Hayward sang the song in the show which ran for only 10 performances. According to Thomas S. Hischak in The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia, “The ballad was introduced on the radio by Freddie Berrens and his Orchestra, and there were soon records made by Ben Selvin and Connee Boswell.... ‘Lullaby of the Leaves’ soon became a favorite of jazz musicians, and many recordings followed....”

George Olsen and His Orchestra, featuring a vocal group, took the song to the charts in 1932 where it spent two of its ten weeks in the number one slot. The Ventures, an instrumental rock & roll band that also dabbled in surf music, had a hit with the song in 1961 as well as another standard, “Perfidia.”

Allen Forte in an extensive analysis of “Lullaby of the Leaves” in The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era, 1924-1950: A Study in Musical Design says, “[It] is not a complex song, either in large-scale melodic design, in form or in harmonic content. The basis of its musical effect, and its popularity, is to be found in its melodic contours and small-scale motives.”

Petkere’s lovely minor/major melody has a lively bridge, and Young’s clever lyric is very metaphorical: “Cradle me where southern skies, Can watch me with a million eyes, Oh sing me to sleep, Lullaby of the leaves.”

“Lullaby of the Leaves” was recorded by the Benny Goodman Orchestra, Art Tatum, MJQ, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Anita O’Day, Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Marty Paich, and Tito Puente’s Latin band. In the ‘90s it was recorded by pianist Geri Allen (for the film Kansas City), guitarist Mimi Fox, and the Singers Unlimited. Lately it has been featured by trombonist Conrad Herwig (2003); the Clayton/Hamilton Orchestra (2004); in 2005 by pianist Hod O’Brien, New York Trio, and saxophonist Scott Hamilton; the Drummonds (2006); guitarist Martin Taylor (2007); and vocalists Mary Stallings (2001), Jackie Ryan (2002), Stephanie Nakasian (2006), and Judy Niemack (2007).