Bye Bye Blackbird

Words & Music by Ray Henderson & Mort Dixon, 1926
Recorded by Eddie Cantor, 1953*


A             A7sus4      A
Pack up all my cares and woe,

E6     E    A9      A
Here I go, singin' low --

A  Bm7-5  A   E7
Bye bye      blackbird.

E7
Where somebody waits for me,

E7       E7/6             E7
Sugar's sweet, and so is she --

E7  E7/6  E7    A   AM7
Bye bye  blackbird.



Bridge:

C#7            C#m7-5  C#7    G7   F#7     
No one here can love or understand me;

B7                Bm7-5    B7       F7  E7
Oh what hard luck stories they all hand me. 


A              A7sus4      A
Make my bed and light the light,

E7/6    E7   F#7
I'll arrive late tonight --

D9        E7     A   F#7  D9       Bm7-5  E7  A     
Blackbird,   bye bye,    blackbird,      bye bye.

*Cantor actually dubbed the song for the actor who portrayed him (Keefe Brasselle) in The Eddie Cantor Story. Joe Cocker's bluesy 1993 rendition in the movie "Sleepless In Seattle" gave it a whole new life.

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.