Russian Lullaby is a 1927 song written by Irving Berlin, with the original lyrics and melody crafted to evoke a Russian mood while speaking to the immigrant experience. It was first performed by Douglas Stanbury at the Roxy Theatre in New York on March 11, 1927, and Berlin published the sheet music that same year. The 1927 recording by Roger Wolfe Kahn & His Orchestra with Henry Garden on vocals helped popularize the tune, which would go on to become a jazz standard.
Musically, the song features a verse in D major that leads into a 32 bar refrain in D minor, with a ragged waltz feel and chromatic touches that hint at Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Berlin alludes to two earlier lullabies while turning the genre on its head, presenting a quiet, poignant scene of a mother and child and a basic but powerful longing for a land that is free. The lyric is intentionally minimal, underscoring the immigrant story without overt politics.
The tune has been covered and reinterpreted many times, appearing on albums by a range of artists. Notable recordings include John Coltrane’s Soul Trane (1958), Jerry Garcia on Compliments (1974) and again with David Grisman on the 1991 collaboration, and Jimmy Rushing’s Rushing Lullaby (1959). The piece remains flexible enough to cross genres from show tunes to jazz to blues-inflected interpretations, while often keeping the verse out of later performances to emphasize the lullaby mood.
