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Why Was I Born?

original show tune composed by Jerome Kern, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II; from the 1929 musical "Sweet Adeline"
VisualArtwork musical_work_composition Q16966261
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Why Was I Born?

Summary

Why Was I Born? is a musical work/composition[1]. Why Was I Born? ranks in the top 5% of musical_work_composition entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (50 views/month).[2]

Key Facts

  • Why Was I Born?'s instance of is recorded as musical work/composition[3].
  • Why Was I Born?'s composer is recorded as Jerome Kern[4].
  • Why Was I Born?'s genre is show tune[5].
  • Among the performers on Why Was I Born? was Helen Morgan[6].
  • Why Was I Born? was performed by Lena Horne[7].
  • Why Was I Born? was performed by Billie Holiday[8].
  • Why Was I Born? was performed by Frank Sinatra[9].
  • Why Was I Born? was performed by Vic Damone[10].
  • Among the performers on Why Was I Born? was Dorothy Lamour[11].
  • Why Was I Born? was performed by Margaret Whiting[12].
  • Among the performers on Why Was I Born? was Kenny Burrell[13].
  • Among the performers on Why Was I Born? was Ella Fitzgerald[14].
  • Among the performers on Why Was I Born? was Dinah Washington[15].
  • Among the performers on Why Was I Born? was Georgia Brown[16].
  • Among the performers on Why Was I Born? was Cher[17].
  • Why Was I Born? was performed by Sonny Rollins[18].
  • Among the performers on Why Was I Born? was Bob Dylan[19].
  • Why Was I Born?'s language of work or name is recorded as English[20].
  • Why Was I Born? was released on 1929[21].
  • Why Was I Born?'s lyricist is recorded as Oscar Hammerstein II[22].
  • Why Was I Born?'s title is recorded as Why Was I Born?[23].
  • Why Was I Born?'s has characteristic is recorded as show tune[24].
  • Why Was I Born?'s form of creative work is recorded as song[25].

Product Details

The following facts are restated verbatim from public-domain and CC0 open-data sources — every line is independently verifiable against the named source's catalog.

MusicBrainz — CC0 open music encyclopedia

  • Release type: Song[26]

  • MusicBrainz ID: d7a82b9e-b4c4-42d0-aca6-45f40acbe309[27]

Body

Authorship and Creation

Performers include Helen Morgan[6], Lena Horne[7], Billie Holiday[8], Frank Sinatra[9], Vic Damone[10], and Dorothy Lamour[11].

Publication

Why Was I Born? was released on 1929[21]. Why Was I Born?'s language of work or name is recorded as English[20]. Its genre is show tune[5].

Why It Matters

Why Was I Born? ranks in the top 5% of musical_work_composition entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (50 views/month).[2]

Related Entities

Jerome Kern Oscar Hammerstein II

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [3] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [4] ↑ . ISWC Network. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  3. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [8] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  7. [9] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  8. [10] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  9. [11] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  10. [12] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  11. [13] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  12. [14] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  13. [15] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  14. [16] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  15. [17] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  16. [18] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  17. [19] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  18. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [21] ↑ . Grove Music Online. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  20. [22] ↑ . Grove Music Online. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  21. [23] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  22. [24] ↑ . Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  23. [25] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Product details (FDA / USDA / NHTSA public-domain catalog data)

  1. [26] ↑ . MusicBrainz (MetaBrainz Foundation). musicbrainz.org.
  2. [27] ↑ . MusicBrainz (MetaBrainz Foundation). musicbrainz.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). Why Was I Born?. Retrieved May 3, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/why-was-i-born
MLA “Why Was I Born?.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 3 May. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/why-was-i-born.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_why-was-i-born_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{Why Was I Born?}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/why-was-i-born}, note = {Accessed: 2026-05-03}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): Why Was I Born? — https://4ort.xyz/entity/why-was-i-born (retrieved 2026-05-03)

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Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 28d ago · KrBot bot · 2026-05-04 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Carnegie hall work id → 66550
    Lyricist → Oscar Hammerstein II
    Freebase id → /m/02vlxlm
    Form of creative work → song
    + 15 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbsetclaimvalue:1| */ [[Property:P1827]]: T0702001168, см. / see [[Template:Autofix|autofix]] на / on [[Property talk:P1827]]"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.