Straighten Up and Fly Right

Many guitarists spend time working out new ‘head’ arrangements of favourite tunes which must be played regularly to keep them current however, some escape and fall by the wayside.
Over the next few months, I’ll post a few that got away to remind me of how I played them.
Straighten Up And Fly Right was composed by Nat King Cole (1943) and taken to publisher Irving Mills who promptly gave himself 50% of the credit. Unfortunately, he then omitted to pay Cole any royalties at all but that didn’t stop Cole’s success as it stayed at the No1 slot for 10 wks!
The song was based on a black folk tale that Cole's father had used as a theme for one of his sermons. In the tale, a buzzard takes different animals for a joy ride. When he gets hungry, he throws them off on a dive and eats them for dinner. A monkey who had observed this trick goes for a ride; he wraps his tail around the buzzard's neck and gives the buzzard a big surprise by nearly choking him to death