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Swanee  (1919) 
by George Gershwin (music) and Irving Caesar (lyrics)
Al Jolson's hit 1920 recording. (help | file info or download)
Cover page to the sheet music

I've been away from you a long time Irving Caesar George Gershwin Swanee 1.jpg Al Jolson, George Gershwin, Irving Caesar, Swanee 1920.ogg


I've been away from you a long time
I never thought I'd miss you so
Somehow I feel
Your love was real
Near you I long to be
The birds are singing It is songtime[1]
The banjos[2] strummin' soft and low
I know that you
Yearn for me too
Swanee You're calling me


How I love you
How I love you
My dear old Swanee
I'd give the world to be
Among the folks in D-I-X-I-Even know my
Waiting for me
Praying for me
Down by the Swanee
The folks up north will see me no more
When I go to the Swanee shore


I'll be happy
I'll be happy

[Trio[4] (sung twice)]

I am coming back to Swanee
I love the old folks at home[5]


  1. The capitalisation of "it" may mean this should be punctuated as The birds are singing, "It is songtime."
  2. Presumably this should be "banjo's"
  3. A nursemaid, usually black. Increasingly stereotyped portrayals of mammys led to the term being considered offensive now, but this was probably not intended in this song.
  4. A technical term for the composition style of the piano part. There remains only one singer
  5. A reference, in both lyrics and music, to the Stephen Foster song "The Old Folks at Home", which begins "Way down upon the Swanee River". This song is largely a parody of that one.