Susannah McCorkle (1 January 1946 – 19 May 2001) was an American jazz singe… Read Full Bio ↴Susannah McCorkle (1 January 1946 – 19 May 2001) was an American jazz singer much admired for her direct, unadorned singing style and quiet intensity.

McCorkle was born in Berkeley, California. She studied modern languages at the University of California, Berkeley. McCorkle began singing professionally after hearing recordings of Billie Holiday in Paris in the late 1960s. She nearly became an interpreter at the European Commission in Brussels, but moved instead to London in 1972 to pursue a career in singing. While in the UK, she made two albums which, although well received, enjoyed only limited circulation.

In the late 1970s, McCorkle returned to the United States and settled in New York City, where a five-month engagement at the Cookery in Greenwich Village brought her to wider public attention and elicited rave reviews from critics.

During the 1980s, McCorkle continued to record; her maturing style and the darkening timbre of her voice greatly enhanced her performances. In the early 1990s, two of the albums McCorkle made for Concord Records, No More Blues and Sábia, were enormously successful and made her name known to the wider world. She was recorded by the Smithsonian Institution which at the time made her the youngest singer ever to have been included in its popular music series. McCorkle played Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls five times and Carnegie Hall three times, and was featured soloist with Skitch Henderson and the 80-piece New York Pops in a concert of Brazilian music.

Thanks to her linguistic skills, McCorkle translated lyrics of Brazilian, French, and Italian songs, notably those for her Brazilian album Sabia. McCorkle also had several short stories published and, in 1991, began work on her first novel. She published fiction in Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan Magazine, and non-fiction in the New York Times Magazine and in American Heritage, including lengthy articles on Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Irving Berlin and Mae West.

McCorkle suffered for many years from depression and cancer, and took her own life at age 55 by leaping off the balcony of her highrise Manhattan apartment. She was alone in her home at the time. The police immediately entered her home after identifying her body and found no foul play. Suicide was ruled the cause of death.

I Was Doing All Right
Susannah McCorkle Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I was doing all right
Nothing but rainbows in my sky
I was doing all right
Till you came by

Had no cause to complain
Life was as sweet as apple pie
Never noticed the rain

Till you came by

But now whenever you're away
I can't sleep nights and suffer all the day
I just sit and wonder
If love isn't one big blunder

But when you hold me tight
Tingling all through, I feel somehow
I was doing all right
But I'm doing better than ever now

I was doing all right
Nothing but rainbows in my sky
I was doing all right
Till you came by

Had no cause to complain
Life was as sweet as apple pie
Never noticed the rain
Till you came by

But now whenever you're away
I can't sleep nights and suffer all the day
I just sit and wonder
If love isn't one big blunder

But when you hold me tight
Tingling through, I feel somehow
I was doing all right
But I'm doing better than ever now
I'm doing [Incomprehensible] ever now

I'm doing better than ever now

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to "I Was Doing All Right" by Susannah McCorkle describe how the singer felt content and satisfied with their life before the arrival of their love interest. The opening lines state "I was doing all right, nothing but rainbows in my sky," indicating that the singer's life was going smoothly and without any trouble. However, the situation changed when the love interest arrived, as mentioned in the refrain, "I was doing all right, till you came by."

The lyrics describe how the singer's life changed since the love interest arrived. They were content with their life before the love interest and never noticed the challenges that might arise in life. But, now they feel restless whenever the love interest is away and suffer throughout the day. The singer doubts the value of love, wondering if it is only one big mistake. The lyrics show the contrast of the singer's perspective before and after the love interest's arrival.

However, the last lines of the song provide a positive outlook where they feel "tingling all through" and realize that although they were "doing all right" before, they're "doing better than ever now" since the love interest arrived. The song portrays the ups and downs of love and how it changes a person's perspective about their life.

Line by Line Meaning

I was doing all right
Life was good and I was content

Nothing but rainbows in my sky
Everything was positive and happy

Till you came by
Until I met you

Had no cause to complain
I had no reason to be unhappy

Life was as sweet as apple pie
Life was very good and enjoyable

Never noticed the rain
I didn't even see any negativity around me

But now whenever you're away
When you're not with me

I can't sleep nights and suffer all the day
I can't rest or relax, I feel pain all day long

I just sit and wonder
I think and reflect

If love isn't one big blunder
If it's not all a mistake

But when you hold me tight
When you embrace me closely