"A Sleepin' Bee" is a song by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Arlen and Truman Capote, written for the Broadway musical House of Flowers, which Capote adapted from his short story of the same name. The show opened at the Alvin Theatre on December 30, 1954, ran for 165 performances and was directed by Peter Brook. It was a commercial failure, but the song became a standard of the American songbook. Diahann Carroll sang it in the original production, and the original cast recording was released in 1955.
Barbra Streisand called it her favorite song, recorded it several times and performed it on The Jack Paar Show in April 1961. Mel Tormé's version, on his 1960 album Mel Tormé Swings Shubert Alley, was called "definitive" in The Penguin Guide to Jazz. Other notable recordings were made by Ernestine Anderson, Carmen McRae, June Christy, Tony Bennett, Julie Andrews, Johnny Hartman, Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman and Cassandra Wilson. It is classed as a jazz and vocal standard.
