Bluer Than Blue

"Bluer Than Blue" is the title of a 1978 song recorded by Michael Johnson. The song was written by noted pop and country music songwriter Randy Goodrum. Goodrum says that the song came to him while driving down the road, so he pulled into a Wendy's, ordered a hamburger and wrote the verses down. However, he does point out that Wendy's should not get all of the credit because he wrote the chorus across the street in a K-mart parking lot. Originally recorded as a demo, it was taken as the first single from Johnson's subsequent LP, The Michael Johnson Album, "Bluer Than Blue" became the singer's first Top 40 hit, reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the summer of 1978. It proved even more popular with adult contemporary radio stations, spending three weeks at #1 on the Easy Listening chart that same year.^[1] To date, this is Johnson's highest-charting single on either the Pop or AC charts; however, he has scored a number of hits on the country chart in the time since releasing "Bluer Than Blue".

The song is sung from the point of view of a man who is in a relationship that is failing, and because of this he is trying to convince himself that his situation will improve once the one he loved moves on or left with the lyrics written as: After you go, I can catch up on my reading / After you go, I'll have a lot more time for sleeping in the 1st verse; then in 2nd verse as After you go, I'll have a lot more room in my closet / After you go, I can stay out all night long if I feel like it; however, it is evident by the lyrics to the song that his efforts are thus far unable to erase his sadness: But I'm bluer than blue, sadder than sad / You're the only light this empty room has ever had / Life without you is gonna be / Bluer than blue.

The single received generally favorable reviews at the time of its release. Cashbox Magazine described Johnson's work as "full of touching ballads with all the right production touches, subtle instrumentation and poignant vocals necessary to keep the tenderness from becoming insipid."^[2]

In 1978, Johnson was quoted as saying, “I knew it was potentially a successful song but I didn’t think it would go this far. It seemed, well, too mature. The experience of being married or living with someone is hard to indentify with for younger people.”^[3]

The song has become a well-known American 1970s soft rock single that continues to be played on radio stations to this day. The video for the song was played on MTV during the 2nd hour on August 1, 1981 which became the 18th video played on the channel not "Message Of Love" by The Pretenders.

In 1996, Barry Manilow covered the song on his album Summer of '78.

Chart performance

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1978 (U.S.)

References