Blues in the Night

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This article is about the song. For other uses, see Blues in the Night (disambiguation).

"Blues in the Night" is a popular song which has become a pop standard.

The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film, Hot Nocturne. The film was later retitled Blues in the Night to take advantage of the popularity of the song.

Alex Wilder said of this song, "'Blues in the Night' is certainly a landmark in the evolution of American popular music, lyrically as well as musically."[1] Mercer, being from the South, realized "that Arlen's notes were meant to be sung as a blues slide and that individual syllables would have made the song too formal, too racially white."[2]


Contents

[edit] Famous phrases from the lyrics

  • "My momma done tol' me"
  • "when I was in knee pants"
  • "worrisome thing"
  • "a woman'll sweet talk"

[edit] Recorded versions

Recorded versions that charted in the United States were by Woody Herman, Dinah Shore, Jimmie Lunceford, Cab Calloway, Artie Shaw, and Rosemary Clooney. Recorded versions in the United Kingdom were by Shirley Bassey and Helen Shapiro.

The Woody Herman recording was released by Decca Records as catalog number 4030.The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on January 2, 1942 and lasted 11 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1.

The Dinah Shore recording was released by RCA Bluebird Records as catalog number 11436. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on February 13, 1942 and lasted 7 weeks on the chart, peaking at #4.

The Jimmie Lunceford recording was released by Decca Records as catalog number 4125. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on January 30, 1942 and lasted 5 weeks on the chart, peaking at #4.

The Cab Calloway recording was released by Okeh Records as catalog number 6422. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on March 6, 1942 and lasted 1 week on the chart, at #8.

The Artie Shaw recording was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 27609. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on November 21, 1941 and lasted 1 week on the chart, at #10.

The Rosemary Clooney recording was released by Columbia Records as catalog number 39813. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on September 26, 1952 and lasted 2 weeks on the chart, peaking at #29.

In addition, the song has been recorded at least twice by Jo Stafford. On October 15, 1943, she recorded it with Johnny Mercer, the Pied Pipers, and Paul Weston's Orchestra, in a version released as a single (catalog number 10001) and on an album (Songs by Johnny Mercer, catalog number CD1) by Capitol Records. On February 20, 1959, she recorded it with The Starlighters in a version released on an album (The Ballad of the Blues, catalog number CL-1332) by Columbia Records.

More recently, the rock group Chicago included the song on their "Night and Day" album in 1995. The arrangement by vocalist Bill Champlin features a blistering guitar solo by Aerosmith's Joe Perry.

[edit] Additional recorded versions

[edit] Other uses

  • The then-recent hit song is sung incessantly by Daffy Duck in the ironically-titled 1942 cartoon My Favorite Duck, in which Porky is tormented by the duck while on a camping trip. Porky's preferred number in that cartoon is "On Moonlight Bay". At one point, Porky unconsciously starts to sing "My Mama Done Tol' Me", then stops, looks into the camera with a "Harumph!" and returns to "Moonlight Bay".[citation needed]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Wilder, Alex (1990). American Popular Song: The Great Innovators 1900-1950. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-195-01445-6.
  2. ^ Gottfried, Martin (1984). Broadway Musicals. New York: Abradale Press. ISBN 0-810-98060-6.

[edit] External link

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