<Tr> <Th> Songwriter (s) </Th> <Td> Kansas Joe McCoy </Td> </Tr> <P> One of the best - known versions of the song was recorded by Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman on July 27, 1942, in New York . Featured in the 1943 film, Stage Door Canteen, it sold over 1 million copies and brought her to nationwide attention . Lee often stated that Green's recording was influential to her music . In a 1984 interview she said, "I was and am a fan of Lil Green, a great old blues singer, and Lil recorded it . I used to play that record over and over in my dressing room, which was next door to Benny's . Finally he said,' You obviously like that song .' I said,' Oh, I love it .' He said,' Would you like me to have an arrangement made of it?' I said,' I'd love that,' and he did ." </P> <P> "Why Don't You Do Right?" was not Goodman and Lee's biggest hit . However, it reached number four on the Billboard charts and defined Lee's sultry and rich vocal style early on in her career . Lee married guitarist Dave Barbour and left Goodman in 1943 . She intended to retire from the music industry and focus on homemaking, but she continued receiving offers to return to the music world, largely due in part to the success of "Why Don't You Do Right?" Ultimately she returned to singing, and collaborated off and on with Goodman throughout her career . They recorded an alternate version of "Why Don't You Do Right?" in 1947 . </P> <P> Many musicians have recorded "Why Don't You Do Right?". These include renditions by Kay Kyser (vocals by Julie Conway), Ella Fitzgerald (Jazz at the Philharmonic, the Ella Fitzgerald Set) and Joe Pass, Julie London, Cal Tjader and Mary Stallings, Mark Murphy, Shirley Horn, Johnny Otis, Mel Torme, Rasputina, Imelda May, Kiri Te Kanawa, Ashlee Simpson, Sinéad O'Connor, Eden Brent on her album Mississippi Number One (2008), White Ghost Shivers on their album Everyone's Got' Em (2006), and the Carolina Chocolate Drops on their Grammy Award - winning album Genuine Negro Jig (2010). Súle Greg Wilson, who played with the Drops on that album, released his own version (with daughter, Senbi Wilson, singing lead, accompanied by Dom Flemons on guitar and Súle on gourd mandolin) that same year on his CD, Runaway Dream: Post-African Music . In 1960, the American jazz singer Della Reese recorded an uptempo version of the song for her album Della Della Cha - Cha - Cha . The song was then recorded in Italy in the early 1960s by Helen Merrill, while she was living there, for the album Parole e Musica: Words and Music . </P>

Who sings why don't you do right