Limehouse Blues (song)

"Limehouse Blues" is a popular British song written by the London-based duo of Douglas Furber (lyrics) and Philip Braham (music).

Evoking the Limehouse district, which pre-World War II was considered the Chinatown of London – with Chinese references heard in both the lyrics and the melody – the song premiered in the 1921 West End revue A to Z being sung by Teddie Gerard in a wordless melodramatic number featuring Gerard as a hostess in a Limehouse dance-hall fronting a brothel.

featured the film's star Julie Andrews – in muted Oriental makeup – recreating Lawrence's role in the "Limehouse Blues" number from André Charlot's Revue, including the vocal performance of the song (with the original's references to "chinkies" omitted).

"Limehouse Blues" has been recorded most often as an instrumental as such becoming a jazz standard,[6] notable examples being recordings by Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins with Les Paul, Count Basie, Sidney Bechet, the Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Gerry Mulligan, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton on Adventures In Jazz, the Dave McKenna Quartet with Zoot Sims, the Ellis Marsalis Trio, Hugo Montenegro, Django Reinhardt, the Adrian Rollini Trio, the Vince Guaraldi Trio on The Navy Swings, the Village Stompers, and the Teddy Wilson Trio.

[11] In the 1950 film Young Man with a Horn – inspired by the life of Bix Beiderbecke – "Limehouse Blues" is performed by Harry James whose version was included on the soundtrack of the same name).