A variant of I'm on My Way (traditional song), Armstrong's version starts with "On My Way" or "I'm on My Way" (or similar phrases in various versions) and then goes into a chorus "On my way now, got on my traveling shoes...".
The song is no relation to "Oh, Lawd, I'm on My Way!", a song sung by Ella Fitzgerald the previous year (1957) on the Porgy and Bess album by Fitzgerald and Armstrong. That song begins: "Porgy and all, I'm on my way to a heav'nly lan'".[3]
References
^Popoff, Martin, Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records 1948-1991, 2010, p. 61, "I'll String Along with You / On My Way (Out on My Traveling Shoes) 1959".
^Nollen, Scott Allen, Louis Armstrong: The Life, Music, and Screen Career, 2004, Page 142, "On My Way" is a blues with a train-like locomotion and a smokin' solo section featuring Louis and Trummy".
^Wojcik, Pamela Robertson and Knight, Arthur, Soundtrack Available: Essays on Film and Popular Music, 2001 p. 329, "... At the time they recorded Porgy and Bess, neither Louis Armstrong nor Ella Fitzgerald was much seen as an oppositional, ... namely with "Summertime" and "Oh Lawd, I'm On My Way" — and thus strongly suggesting the show's narrative arc."
