Buddy on the Nightshift (Oscar Hammerstein & Kurt Weill) sung by James Bierney

Buddy on the Nightshift (from “Lunch Time Follies”)
James Bierney (baritone)
Uli Schauerte (piano)
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein
Music by Kurt Weill
The wonderful accompaniment was provided by Uli Schauerte whose CZcams channel can be found here @UliSchauerte and website is www.uli-schauerte.de
On his great website you can find orchestral accompaniments to many Kurt Weill songs, including all of the musical numbers from “The Threepenny Opera” (Die Dreigroschenoper) all painstakingly, and beautifully, made by this excellent musician.
Some of the war-related activities that occupied Oscar Hammerstein in 1942 were his works for the Writers' War Board, the Stage Door Canteen and the American Theatre Wing War Service. It was through this last organization that Hammerstein established his brief collaboration with Kurt Weill, providing the lyrics for the Lunch Time Follies (performed for the workers of a shipbuilding workshop in New York, then broadcast) songs "Buddy on the Nightshift" and "The Good Earth."
Many of these factories, especially at the beginning of the war, would operate twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. In this song, the worker on the dayshift speaks to his or her "buddy on the nightshift" with words of encouragement to "push those planes along" the "long assembly line." The lyrics are organized within a simple rhyme scheme, so that the second and fourth lines of every stanza rhyme. The use of slang expressions and simple, conversational phrases was well suited to the targeted audience and in keeping with his Broadway style of writing lyrics. Weill's choice of a popular Broadway musical style is also well suited to an audience of factory workers.
Hello there, buddy on the nightshift. I hope you slept all day
Until the moon came out and woke you up and sent you on your way.
Hello there, buddy on the nightshift. I hope you’re feeling fine.
I left a lot of work for you to do on a long assembly line.
I wish I knew you better, but you never go my way,
For when one of us goes on the job, the other hits the hay.
Goodbye now, buddy on the nightshift, and push those planes along,
And when the sun comes out, I’ll take your place, all wide awake and strong.
I’ll follow you, you’ll follow me, and how can we go wrong?