I Ain't Got Nobody is a classic American jazz standard published in 1915, with music by Spencer Williams and lyrics by Roger A. Graham. It was first recorded by Marion Harris in 1916 and soon became a popular tune across pop, jazz and country styles. The song is a ii-V-I in F major, featuring a chromatic walkdown to the ii chord and a bluesy B section. The lyrics tell a story of loneliness and lost love, with the singer claiming he has nobody and that nobody cares for him. The tune gained lasting fame when Louis Prima popularized it in 1956 as a medley with Just a Gigolo; the medley opened Prima’s Capitol album The Wildest! and became his signature number. There have been competing claims about authorship, but the widely cited credits are Spencer Williams (music) and Roger Graham (lyrics).
