Straighten Up and Fly Right

1943 by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills

“A buzzard took a monkey for a ride in the air
The monkey thought that everything was on the square
The buzzard tried to shake that monkey off his back
But the monkey turned around and said, “Hey, listen, Jack.”
Straighten up and fly right”

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; gives the buzzard a big surprise by nearly choking him to death