View source for Lush Life (song)

{{infobox song
|image = Image:Cheek to Cheek Standard Edition artwork.jpg
|artist = [[Lady Gaga]]
|written = Billy Strayhorn
|producer = 
|time = 4:14
|album = [[Cheek to Cheek (album)|Cheek to Cheek]]
|previous = "[[They All Laughed (song)|They All Laughed]]"
|next = "[[Sophisticated Lady (song)|Sophisticated Lady]]"
}}

"'''Lush Life'''" is a jazz standard with lyrics and music written by Billy Strayhorn from 1933 to 1938. The song's lyrics describe the author's weariness of the night life after a failed romance, wasting time with "jazz and cocktails" at "come-what-may places" and in the company of girls with "sad and sullen gray faces/distinque traces". Strauhorn was only 16 when he wrote the majority of the song, which was to become his signature composition (along with "Take the 'A' Train").

The song was recorded by [[Lady Gaga]] as a solo song from her and [[Tony Bennett]]'s jazz collaborative album, ''[[Cheek to Cheek (album)|Cheek to Cheek]].''

==Performances==
<verbatim>Tabs</verbatim>
<tabber>
Live=
<verbatim>Table</verbatim>
{| class="table table-condensed" style="width: 620px;"
! style="width: 110px;"|Dates
! style="width: 230px;"|Location
! style="width: 120px;"|City
! style="width: 40px;"|[[Image:Globe-green.png]]
|}
{| class="table table-condensed" style="width: 620px;"
|colspan="4" align="center"|[[2014]]
|-
|align="left"|[[1 July|July 1]]
|align="left"|[[Montreal International Jazz Festival]]
|align="left"|Montreal
|align="center"|[[Image:Ca.png|link=Canada]]
|-
|align="left"|[[5 September|September 5]]
|align="left"|[[The Plaza Hotel|Harper's Bazaar: NYFW Fete]]
|align="left"|New York City, NY
|align="center"|[[Image:Us.png|link=United States]]
|-
<div style="overflow: auto; ">
{| class="table table-condensed" style="width: 620px;"
|colspan="4" align="center"|[[2015]]
|-
|align="left"|[[29 October|October 29]]
|align="left"|[[AmFAR|amFAR Inspiration Gala]]
|align="left"|Los Angeles
|align="center"|[[Image:Us.png|link=United States]]
|}

|-|Radio=
<verbatim>Table</verbatim>
{| class="table table-condensed" style="width: 620px;"
! style="width: 130px;"|Dates
! style="width: 250px;"|Show
! style="width: 120px;"|Station
! style="width: 20px;"|[[Image:Globe-green.png]]
|}
{| class="table table-condensed" style="width: 620px;"
|colspan="4" align="center"|[[2013]]
|-
|align="left"|[[2 December|December 2]]
|align="left"|[[The Howard Stern Show]]
|Sirius XM
|style="text-align: center;"|[[Image:Us.png|link=United States]]
|-
|}

|-|Tour=
<verbatim>Table</verbatim>
{| class="table table-condensed" style="width: 620px;"
! style="width: 250px;"|Tour
! style="width: 100px;"|Dates
! style="width: 50px;"|Performances
|}
{| class="table table-condensed" style="width: 620px;"
|-
|align="left"|[[Cheek to Cheek Tour]]
|align="left"|[[2014]]-[[2015]] <small>(All Dates)</small>
|36
|-
|align="left"|[[Enigma|Jazz & Piano Engagement]]
|align="left"|[[2019]] & [[2023]]
|22
|-
|
|align="right"|'''Total:'''
|<u>58</u>
|}
</tabber>

==Lyrics==
{{Scroll box|content=
<poem>
I used to visit all the very gay places
Those come what may places
When one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life
To get the feel of life from jazz and cocktails

The girls I knew had sad and sullen gray faces
With distingué traces
That used to be there you could see where they'd been washed away
By too many through the day twelve o'clocktails

Then you came along with your siren's song
To tempt me to madness
I thought for a while that your pointed smile
With tinged with the sadness of a great love for me

Ah yes, I was wrong
Again I was wrong

Life is lonely again and only last year
Everything seemed so assured
Now life is awful again
And thoughtful of heart could only be a bore

A week in Paris could ease the bite of it
All I care is to smile in spite of it
I'll forget you I will
Oh, yet you are still burning inside my brain

Romance is mush
Stifling those who strive
I'll live a lush life in some small dive

And there
I'll be while I rot
With the rest
Of those whose lives are lonely too
</poem>
}}

==Credits==
<verbatim>Table</verbatim>
{| class="table table-condensed" style="width: 620px;"
! width="200px" |
|-
|'''Writer and composer'''
|Billy Strayhorn
|-
|'''Piano'''
|Tom Ranier
|-
|
| align="center" |'''Orchestra'''
|-
|'''Orchestra arranged and conducted'''
|Jorge Calandrelli
|-
|'''Violins'''
|Elena Barere, Jorge Ávila, Laura Bald, Sean Carney, Barbara Danilow, Laura Frautschi, Kristina Musser Gitterman, Sanguen Han, Karen Karlsrud, Yoon Kwon, Ann Leathers, Laura McGinnis, Nancy McAlhaney, Alex Sharpe, Catherine Sim, Sebu Sirinian, Lisa Tipton, Una Tone, Yuri Vodovoz, Xiao-Dong Wang & Nancy Wu, Eric Wyrick & Robert Zubrycki.
|-
|'''Viola'''
|Vincent Lionti, Sarah Adams, Katherine Anderson, Todd Low, Kimberly Foster Wallace, Martha Mooke & Alissa Smith
|-
|'''Celli'''
|Richard Locker, Diane Barere, Stephanie Cummins, Jeanne LeBlanc & Sæumm Þorsteinsdóttir & Ellen Westermann.
|-
|'''Harp'''
|Barbara Allen and Susan Jolles
|-
|'''Flute'''
|Pamela Sklar and Katherine Fink
|-
|'''English Horn Oboe'''
|Diane Lesser
|-
|'''Clarinet'''
|Pavel Vinnitsky
|-
|'''French Horn'''
|Mike Atkinson, Nancy Billman, Bob Carlisle, Theo Primis and Stewart Rose
|-
|'''Publishing'''
|''Billy Strayhorn Songs (ASCAP) administred by Reservoir Media Music (ASCAP) d/b/a, Reservoir Media Managment, Inc.''
|}

{{Cheek to Cheek}}
[[Category:Songs]]
[[Category:Cheek to Cheek songs]]
[[Category:Cover songs]]
[[Category:Cheek to Cheek Tour songs]]
[[Category:Jazz & Piano Engagement songs]]