Sing for Your Supper

"Sing for Your Supper" is an American popular song by composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart. The song debuted in their 1938 Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse where it was done as a trio, with Muriel Angelus, Marcy Westcott, and Wynn Murray performing an arrangement specially created for the production by Hugh Martin.

Background
The lyrics describe a singer performing to earn her meals: "Sing for your supper/And you'll get breakfast./Songbirds always eat/If their song is sweet to hear."

Recordings
The song has been recorded by:
 * Benny Goodman & His Orchestra (vcl. by Martha Tilton 1938)
 * Rudy Vallée
 * Count Basie
 * Mel Tormé
 * Helen Humes
 * the Mamas & the Papas included it on their 1967 LP, Deliver
 * Also in 1967, Cher included it on With Love, Chér

Popular culture
Author Ethan Mordden used the title for his book Sing for Your Supper: the Broadway Musical in the 1930s.