"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" is a post-World War I popular song with lyrics by American actor Eugene Lockhart,[1] and music composed by Canadian-born[1] concert pianist Ernest Seitz in 1918.

"Swingin' Down the Lane", "Spain", "It Had to Be You" and "I'll See You in My Dreams" cemented Jones' standing as one of the top three bandleaders of the 1920s, overshadowed by Paul Whiteman, and perhaps Ben Selvin.

This promotional clip provided by The Ed Sullivan Show, filmed on August 19, 1951, of Les Paul and Mary Ford performing "The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise",[9] answers questions about the popularity of their act, as well as this song, both which became a phenomenon that fall.

Initially, when the song's hopeful sentiment appealed to audiences in the post-World War I era, it was recorded by both singers and instrumentalists, including Morton Downey, Fritz Kreisler, and Ted Lewis.

Later, as a popular vehicle for improvisation, it was recorded by many jazz musicians, among them Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt, Mel Powell, Jess Stacy, Jack Teagarden and Cuban mambo master Machito.

Canadian jazz musicians to record the song include Bert Niosi (1946), Peter Appleyard (1957), Ed Bickert (1979), and Oscar Peterson (1980).

The song is also referenced in Tennessee Williams's play The Glass Menagerie as the music heard emanating from the Paradise Dance Hall across the alley from the Wingfields' tenement building.

The Les Paul and Mary Ford version of the song appears in a teaser video released by American band The Voidz to promote their album Virtue.