“Ol' Man River”

Cultural  

1. A song from the musical Show Boat; the river is the Mississippi River. The music to “Ol' Man River” is by Jerome Kern and the words by Oscar Hammerstein II; it was memorably sung by Paul Robeson.

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Example Sentences

Singer Bing Crosby put “Ol’ Man River” on the charts.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 30, 2019

His version of “Ol’ Man River” punctuates a homage to Paul Robeson with anarchic howls; he tears into Clarence Carter’s hit “Strokin’” and struts through Tom Waits’s “Whistling Past the Graveyard.”

From New York Times • Aug. 2, 2018

Here is movie mogul Louis B. Mayer sobbing as he watches young Sinatra belt out “Ol’ Man River” in 1943 at the Hollywood Bowl.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 30, 2015

“Ol’ Man River” is most closely associated with the stentorian African-American singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 17, 2015

But while there are haunting references to “Ol’ Man River” and, naturally, the blues, the guitarist ultimately realized it was pointless to trot out all these genres, textbook-style.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 1, 2013