"I Cover the Watefront" is a 1933 popular song and jazz standard composed by Johnny Green with lyrics by Edward Heyman. The song was inspired by Max Miller's 1932 best-selling novel I Cover the Waterfront. The song became instantly popular, and many artists covered it in 1933: Annette Hanshaw, Abe Lyman's California Ambassador Hotel Orchestra, Billie Holiday, Connie Boswell, and Louis Armstrong, among others. A 1933 motion picture, also inspired by Miller's book and also titled I Cover the Waterfront, was re-scored at the last minute to include the tune. Sheet music publishers later used the film's success by claiming that the song was "[i]nspired by the United Artist Picture of the same name". Years later, Ella Fitzgerald recorded this song in her 1979 live album Digital III at Montreux o