Blues in the Night (song)

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Blues in the Night is a song written by Harold Arlen (music) and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and published in 1941. Woody Herman’s version became a number 1 hit in the United States in 1941.

Using the song and first recording

Arlen and Mercer wrote Blues in the Night for the film musical of the same name , the song was played in the film by the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. The Oscar- nominated film featured a musical drama about a jazz band associated with gangsters. Actors who played band members included Priscilla Lane and Jack Carson as a couple, and Richard Whorf and Elia Kazan .

Harold Arlen recalled:

“We were doing the music for a film called Hot Nocturne and the script was for a black guy in prison to sing a blues . I knew that any musician could write a blues and get away with it, but now I wanted to do something special [...] I wrote three twelve-measure stanzas in the classic blues form. It took me a day and a half to do this. Then I knew that the melody had great power. I gave this to Johnny Mercer and he started making up lyrical ideas. He wrote four pages with it. I didn't think the first verse was quite right, so I suggested adding a line from the fourth page, My mama done tol 'me, to the beginning. That worked and got the song flowing. "
My momma done tole me,
when I was in knee-pants,
my momma done tole me,
“Son, a woman's a sweet-talk,
who'll give you the big-eye.” '

Margaret Whiting remembered hearing the first time blues in the night ; Arlen and Mercer had just finished the song and were playing it on the piano at their house to a group of singers and actors, including Mickey Rooney , Judy Garland , Mel Tormé and Martha Raye .

"... the song had its own strength ... that whole thing about the whistle blowing in the night, the associations that were built into Johnny's lyric. And Harold had written that kind of steady blues refrain that kept on repeating itself . "

The song was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Song category, which Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II finally received in 1942 for the song The Last Time I Saw Paris .

Cover versions

In 1941 the song was covered by Artie Shaw (arrangement: Bill Challis , # 10), Benny Goodman (with Peggy Lee , # 20) and Woody Herman and His Orchestra (# 1); their versions came into the US hit parades. In the same year the swing orchestras Cab Calloway , Charlie Barnet , Glenn Miller , Harry James and Tommy Dorsey also recorded the song; Lunceford also played for Decca Records in December 1941 , with Joe Thomas and Eddie Wilcox having the vocal parts.

In the 1940s, the song was recorded by Rosemary Clooney (who reached # 20 in the charts in 1952), Big Joe Turner , Teddy Weatherford , Frank Sinatra , Noble Sissle , Louis Armstrong , Eddie South and Phil Moore , and in Europe also Alice Babs , Helmut Brandt , Jerry Mengo and Sidney Bechet . Tom Lord lists 314 cover versions of the title.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Gerhard Klußmeier : Jazz in the Charts. Another view on jazz history. Liner notes and booklet for the 100 CD edition. Membrane International GmbH. ISBN 978-3-86735-062-4
  2. ↑ a b c song portrait at jazzstandards.com
  3. ^ The 1942 Oscars in the Internet Movie Data Base
  4. ↑ a b Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed January 5, 2014)