Why Don't You Do Right? is a blues and jazz-influenced pop tune that began life in 1936 as Weed Smoker's Dream by the Harlem Hamfats, with songwriting credited to Kansas Joe McCoy and Herb Morand (originally listed as McCoy-Moran). The piece is a minor-key twelve-bar blues with a few chord substitutions and is considered a classic 'woman's blues' song that entered the standard repertoire. It was rewritten and retitled Why Don't You Do Right? and was popularized by Lil Green in 1941, with Big Bill Broonzy on guitar. A widely known version followed when Peggy Lee recorded it with Benny Goodman in New York on July 27, 1942; the Columbia single with the B-side Six Flats Unfurnished, released in 1942, reached the top charts and appeared in Stage Door Canteen (1943). Lee later cited Lil Green's version as an influence, and Goodman's arrangement helped bring her national fame; the song has since become a jazz and blues standard and has appeared in film and games such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Fallout: New Vegas (2010).
