Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American blues, … Read Full Bio ↴Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.
Her best-known recordings include "Dinah," "Stormy Weather," "Taking a Chance on Love," "Heat Wave," "Supper Time," "Am I Blue?" and "Cabin in the Sky," as well as her version of the spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow." Waters was the second African American, after Hattie McDaniel, to be nominated for an Academy Award. She is also the first African American woman to be nominated for an Emmy Award, in 1962.

Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, on October 31, 1896, as a result of the rape of her teenaged mother, Louise Anderson (believed to have been thirteen years old at the time, although some sources indicate she may have been slightly older), by John Waters, a pianist and family acquaintance from a mixed-race middle-class background. Waters played no role in raising Ethel. Ethel Waters was raised in poverty and never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. She said of her difficult childhood, "I never was a child. I never was cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family."
Waters grew tall, standing 5'9½" in her teens. According to women-in-jazz historian and archivist Rosetta Reitz, Waters' birth in the North and her peripatetic life exposed her to many cultures.
Waters married at the age of 13, but soon left her abusive husband and became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel working for $4.75 per week. On her 17th birthday, she attended a costume party at a nightclub on Juniper Street. She was persuaded to sing two songs, and impressed the audience so much that she was offered professional work at the Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore, MD. She later recalled that she earned the rich sum of ten dollars a week, but her managers cheated her out of the tips her admirers threw on the stage.

After her start in Baltimore, Waters toured on the black vaudeville circuit. As she described it later, "I used to work from nine until unconscious." Despite her early success, she fell on hard times and joined a carnival, traveling in freight cars along the carnival circuit and eventually reaching Chicago. Waters enjoyed her time with the carnival and recalled, "the roustabouts and the concessionaires were the kind of people I'd grown up with, rough, tough, full of larceny towards strangers, but sentimental and loyal to their friends and co-workers." She did not last long with them, though, and soon headed south to Atlanta, where she worked in the same club with Bessie Smith. Smith demanded that Waters not compete in singing blues opposite her. Waters conceded and sang ballads and popular songs. Around 1919, Waters moved to Harlem and there became a celebrity performer in the Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s.
Waters obtained her first Harlem job at Edmond's Cellar, a club that had a black patronage. She specialized in popular ballads and became an actress in a blackface comedy called Hello 1919. Jazz historian Rosetta Reitz points out that by the time Waters returned to Harlem in 1921, women blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in the country. In 1921, Waters became the fifth black woman to make a record, on the tiny Cardinal Records label. She later joined Black Swan Records, where Fletcher Henderson was her accompanist. Waters later commented that Henderson tended to perform in a more classical style than she would prefer, often lacking "the damn-it-to-hell bass."
She recorded with Black Swan from 1921 through 1923. In early 1924, Paramount bought the Black Swan label, and she stayed with Paramount through that year. Waters first recorded for Columbia Records in 1925, achieving a hit with her voicing of "Dinah", which was voted a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. Soon after, she started working with Pearl Wright, and together they toured in the South. In 1924, Waters played at the Plantation Club on Broadway. She also toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. With Earl Dancer, she joined what was called the "white time" Keith Vaudeville Circuit, a traditional white-audience based vaudeville circuit combined with screenings of silent movies. They received rave reviews in Chicago and earned the unheard of salary of US$1,250 in 1928. In 1929, Waters and Pearl Wright arranged the unreleased Harry Akst song "Am I Blue?," which then appeared in the movie On with the Show and became a hit and her signature tune.
Although she was considered a blues singer during the pre-1925 period, Waters belonged to the vaudeville style of Mamie Smith, Viola McCoy, and Lucille Hegamin. While with Columbia, she introduced many popular standards including "Dinah," "Heebie Jeebies," "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Someday, Sweetheart," "Am I Blue?" and "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue" on the popular series, while she continued to sing blues (like "West End Blues," "Organ Grinder Blues," etc.) on Columbia's 14000 race series. During the 1920s, Waters performed and was recorded with the ensembles of Will Marion Cook and Lovie Austin. As her career continued, she evolved toward being a blues and Broadway singer, performing with artists such as Duke Ellington. She remained with Columbia through 1931. She then signed with Brunswick in 1932 and remained until 1933 when she went back to Columbia. She signed with Decca in late 1934 for only two sessions, as well as a single session in early 1938. She recorded for the specialty label "Liberty Music Shops" in 1935 and again in 1940. Between 1938 and 1939, she recorded for Bluebird.
In 1933, Waters made a satirical all-black film entitled Rufus Jones for President, which featured then-child performer Sammy Davis Jr. as Rufus Jones. She went on to star at the Cotton Club, where, according to her autobiography, she "sang 'Stormy Weather' from the depths of the private hell in which I was being crushed and suffocated." She had a featured role in the wildly successful Irving Berlin Broadway musical revue As Thousands Cheer in 1933, where she was the first black woman in an otherwise white show. She had three gigs at this point; in addition to the show, she starred in a national radio program and continued to work in nightclubs. She was the highest paid performer on Broadway at that time. MGM hired Lena Horne as the ingenue in the all-Black musical Cabin in the Sky, and Waters starred as Petunia in 1942, reprising her stage role of 1940. The film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, was a success.

She began to work with Fletcher Henderson again in the late 1940s. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky, under the direction of Elia Kazan, after original director, John Ford, quit, due to his disagreements with Waters. According to producer Daryl Zanuck, Ford "hated that old...woman (Waters)." Ford, Karzan stated, "Didn't know how to reach Ethel Waters." Kazan later referred to Water's "Truly odd combination of old-time religiosity and free-flowing hatred.". In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding. Waters and Harris repeated their roles in the 1952 film version of Member of the Wedding'' In 1950, Waters starred in the television series Beulah, but quit after complaining that the scripts' portrayal of blacks was "degrading." She later guest starred in 1957 and 1959 on NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. In the 1957 episode, she sang "Cabin in the Sky."
Despite these successes, her brilliant career was fading. She lost tens of thousands in jewelry and cash in a robbery, and had difficulties with the IRS. Her health suffered, and she worked only sporadically in following years. In 1950-51 she wrote the autobiography His Eye is on the Sparrow with Charles Samuels, in which she wrote candidly about her life. She explains why her age has often been misstated: her mother had had to sign a paper claiming Waters was four years older than she was, and that she was born in 1896. His Eye is on the Sparrow was adapted for a stage production in which she was portrayed by Ernestine Jackson. In her second autobiography, To Me, It's Wonderful, Waters states that she was born in 1900. Rosetta Reitz called Waters "a natural ... Her songs are enriching, nourishing. You will want to play them over and over again, idling in their warmth and swing. Though many of them are more than 50 years old, the music and the feeling are still there."

Waters is the great-aunt of singer-songwriter Crystal Waters. Waters often toured with Billy Graham on his crusades. She died on September 1, 1977, aged 80, from uterine cancer, kidney failure, and other ailments in Chatsworth, California.

Recordings of Ethel Waters were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

Cabin In The Sky
Ethel Waters Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

In this cloudy sky overhead now
There's no guiding star I can see
And I would be lost by each wild tempest tossed
Oh, if I didn't know of a place we two can go

There's a little cabin in the sky, Mister
For me and for you
I feel that it's true somehow

Can't you see that cabin in the sky, Mister
An acre or two of heavenly blue to plow

We will be oh so gay
Eat fried chicken every day
As the angels go sailing by

And that is why my heart is flyin' high, Mister
'Cause I know we'll have a cabin in the sky

We will be oh so gay
Eat fried chicken every day
As the angels go sailing by

That is why my heart is flying high, baby
'Cause I know we'll have a cabin in the sky

Overall Meaning

The song "Cabin In The Sky" by Ethel Waters is a song that speaks of a sense of hope and optimism amid the difficulties of life. In the song, the singer speaks of the challenges of life, represented by the cloudy sky and wild tempests, that can leave one feeling lost and aimless. However, in the midst of this, the singer speaks of a place that they can escape to, a little cabin in the sky. This cabin represents a refuge, a place of peace and joy where the troubles of life can be forgotten. It's a place where they can be themselves and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, like eating fried chicken every day.

The lyrics of the song are poignant and hopeful, expressing a belief in something greater than oneself that can provide comfort and stability in the midst of life's struggles. The song's message is universal and timeless, resonating with people of all ages and cultures who seek hope in a world that can often seem chaotic and confusing. The song has endured for decades, inspiring generations of listeners with its message of hope, resilience, and perseverance.

Line by Line Meaning

In this cloudy sky overhead now
The singer is looking up at the sky, which is clouded and dark, and is feeling lost and directionless.

There's no guiding star I can see
The singer is unable to find any star in the sky that can help her find her way.

And I would be lost by each wild tempest tossed
The singer feels that she would be thrown off course by every challenge that comes her way if she didn't know of a special place she can go.

Oh, if I didn't know of a place we two can go
The singer knows of a secret place where she and someone special can escape to when the going gets tough.

There's a little cabin in the sky, Mister
The singer is referencing the special place she spoke of earlier, which is a cabin floating in the sky where they can escape to.

For me and for you
The cabin in the sky is for the singer and her companion to share together.

I feel that it's true somehow
The singer senses that the cabin in the sky is real and not just a figment of her imagination.

Can't you see that cabin in the sky, Mister
The singer is asking her companion if he can also envision the cabin they can escape to.

An acre or two of heavenly blue to plow
The cabin in the sky is set in a heavenly blue atmosphere that is waiting for them to cultivate and enjoy.

We will be oh so gay
The singer and her companion will be happy and content in the cabin in the sky.

Eat fried chicken every day
They can indulge in one of their favorite dishes every day while in the cabin in the sky.

As the angels go sailing by
They can enjoy the peaceful view of angels floating by in the sky around them.

And that is why my heart is flyin' high, Mister
The singer's heart is filled with joy and excitement because of the opportunity to escape to this wonderful cabin in the sky.

'Cause I know we'll have a cabin in the sky
The singer is confident that she and her companion will be able to reach and enjoy the cabin in the sky together.

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: VERNON DUKE, JOHN LATOUCHE

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

@alalahoward1299

3y↑7

Lyrics:
Petunia: In this cloudy sky overhead now there's no guiding star i can see and i would be lost by each wild tempest tossed Oh, if i didn't know of a place we two can go..... there's a little cabin in the sky, Mister, for me and for you i feel that it's true somehow can't you see that cabin in the sky, Mister, an acre or two of heavenly blue to plow we will be oh so gay all we'll do is sing and pray as the angels go sailing by and that is why my heart is flying high, Mister, 'cause i know we'll have a cabin in the sky
Little Joe: There may be a cabin in the sky, Lady, yet i am a boy who's headed for joy below there may be an acre way up high, Lady, but i ain't got wings and i want the things i know cabin life may be sweet but it sounds so incomplete i prefer my easy street right now since i guess i'll never learn to fly, Lady, i'm just passing by that cabin in the sky
Petunia: There's a little cabin in the sky, Mister
Chorus: For me and for you, i feel that it's true somehow
Petunia: Oh, can't you see that cabin in the sky, Mister
Chorus: An acre or two of heavenly blue to plow
Petunia: There we'll be oh so gay all we'll do is sing and pray as the angels go sailing by and that is why my heart is flying high, Mister, 'cause i know we'll have
Chorus: 'Cause i know we'll have
Petunia: A cabin in the sky

All comments from YouTube:

@clivsoph

2y↑7

This song was first performed by Ethel Waters and Dooley Wilson (later of "Casablanca" fame) in the Broadway show, Oct 25, 1940 - May 8, 1941. Benny Goodman recorded it with vocal by Helen Forrest on Nov 29, 1940. After the movie came out on Apr 9, 1943 (May 27 at Loew's Criterion in NYC), the Goodman recording got a new life and hit #19 as the best selling version on the Billboard charts in June. For the movie, the original lyric, "Eat fried chicken ev'ry day" was changed to "All we'll do is sing and pray."

@coreycanada7104

2y↑8

Her voice was like honey. Marvelous

@classicalaid1

1y↑1

And I recall Ms. Waters sings a famous song about Honey, as well.

@blackx9360

1y↑1

now its time to eat some of this pure raw honey i bought a few days ago; thanks for mentioning that word. And you're right, Ethel's voices is so sweet