By The Sleepy Lagoon - Sleepy Lagoon

Sleepy Lagoon

In early 1940, songwriter Jack Lawrence came across the piano solo version of By the Sleepy Lagoon and wrote a song lyric, then took it to Chappell, the publisher of Coates's original melody. The head of Chappell's New York office, Max Dreyfus, was concerned that this lyric had been added without consulting the composer, who was a famous British classical composer and told Lawrence that he "may resent your tampering with his melody." Dreyfus also didn't think the melody belonged in the popular genre, and was better suited to its original treatment as a light classical piece.

Later that year, Lawrence attempted to contact Coates in person. Britain was in the middle of World War II, and contrary to Dreyfuss's fears, Coates thought the lyrics fitted so well that he retorted he could hardly believe it had been written to a pre-existing melody:

You have set the words to my music so cleverly that one would never suspect that the music had been written first!"

The resulting song was published as a collaboration of Lawrence and Coates, and when Lawrence showed the song to bandleader Harry James, it was recorded for a major hit (again counter to Dreyfuss's thoughts). The recording by James was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 36549. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on 17 April 1942 and lasted 18 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 1.

Other hit versions were recorded by Dinah Shore, David Rose, Fred Waring, Glenn Miller and others. A recording with Tom Jenkins and his Palm Court Orchestra was made in London on 15 March 1949. It was released by EMI on the His Master's Voice label as catalogue number B 9768. Peter Kreuder, piano with rhythm recorded the tune in 1949. The song made the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960, in a version by the Platters, found originally on the flipside of the 1960 top ten "Harbor Lights".

In 2012, the musical piece became the main musical theme of the water fountain spectacle Aquanura at the Dutch theme park Efteling. Aquanura is the third largest permanent fountain show in the world and the largest in Europe. As the show is performed nightly on a large lake, the creaters used By the sleepy lagoon as an introduction and linking melody throughout the show. The musical piece was partly rearranged and rerecorded by the Dutch Brabant Orchestra especially for the show.

Sleepy Lagoon has the Khmer language version, from the 1960s.