Blues in the Night Totally Explained

Everything about Blues In The Night totally explained

"Blues in the Night" is a popular song which has become a pop standard and can certainly be considered part of the Great American Songbook. The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues in the Night. The song is sung in the film by William Gillespie.

Writing the song

Arlen and Mercer wrote the entire score for Blues in the Night. One requirement was for a blues song to be sung in a jail cell. As usual with Mercer, the composer wrote the music first, then Mercer wrote the words. Arlen said,

The whole thing just poured out. And I knew in my guts, without even thinking what Johnny would write for a lyric, that this was strong, strong, strong! When Mercer wrote "Blues in the Night", I went over his lyric and I started to hum it over his desk. It sounded marvelous once I got to the second stanza but that first twelve was weak tea. On the third or fourth page of his work sheets I saw some lines—one of them was "My momma done tol' me, when I was in knee pants." I said, "Why don't your try that?" It was one of the very few times I've ever suggested anything like that to John.

When they finished writing the song, Mercer called a friend, singer Margaret Whiting and asked if they could come over and play it for her. She suggested they come later because she'd dinner guests—Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Mel Tormé, and Martha Raye. Instead, Arlen and Mercer went right over. Margaret Whiting remembered what happened then:

They came in the back door, sat down at the piano and played the score of "Blues in the Night". I remember forever the reaction. Mel got up and said, "I can't believe it." Martha couldn't say a word. Mickey Rooney said, "That's the greatest thing I've ever heard. Judy Garland said, "Play it again." We had them play it seven times. Judy and I ran to the piano to see who was going to learn it first. It was a lovely night..

Academy Award Nomination

In 1941 "Blues in the Night" was one of nine songs nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Observers expected that either "Blues in the Night" or "Chattanooga Choo Choo" would win, so that when "The Last Time I Saw Paris" actually won, neither it's composer, Oscar Hammerstein II, nor lyricist, Jerome Kern, was present at the ceremony. Kern was so upset at winning with a song that hadn't been specifically written for a motion picture and that had been published and recorded before the film came out that he petitioned the Motion Picture Academy to change the rules. Since then, a nominated song has to have been written specifically for the motion picture in which it's performed..

Critical Comment

Alec 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." 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."

Famous phrases from the lyrics

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

The first two lines have been sung in several ways: "My momma done tol' me / when I was in knee pants"; "My momma done tol' me / when I was in blue jeans"; "My momma done tol' me / when I was in pigtails."

Recorded versions

Charting versions

Recorded versions that charted in the United States were by Woody Herman, Dinah Shore. 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 record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on March 6, 1942 and lasted 1 week on the chart, at #8. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on November 21, 1941 and lasted 1 week on the chart, at #10. The record first reached the Billboard magazine charts on September 26, 1952 and lasted 2 weeks on the chart, peaking at #29) 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 guitar solo by Aerosmith's Joe Perry.

Additional recorded versions (and further details on above versions)

Larry Adler and the John Kirby Orchestra (recorded January 20, 1944, released by Decca Records as catalog number 23524; later version of Decca 23524 released as a Larry Adler harmonica solo, both versions with the flip side “St. Louis Blues”)

Luis Arcaraz (released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-4418, with the flip side “Stormy Weather”)

Louis Armstrong (1957)

Charlie Barnet and his orchestra (recorded October 5, 1941, released by Bluebird Records as catalog number 11327, with the flip side “Isle of Pines”)

Cab Calloway and his orchestra (vocal: Calloway & The Palmer Brothers) (recorded September 10, 1941, released by OKeh Records as catalog number 6422, with the flip side “Says Who? Says You, Says I”)

Bing Crosby and John Scott Trotter's Orchestra (recorded January 27, 1942, released by Decca Records as catalog number 4183A, with the flip side “Miss You”)

Jula de Palma in her album Jula in jazz (1958)

Ella Fitzgerald

Judy Garland and the David Rose Orchestra (released by Decca Records as catalog number 4081A, with the flip side “The End of the Rainbow”, also released by Harmony Records as catalog number Ha1012, with the flip side “Bewitched”)

Bob Grant (medley recorded July 1, 1944, released by Decca Records as catalog number 24311, with the flip side “My Devotion medley”)

Woody Herman and his Orchestra (vocal: Woody Herman) (recorded September 10, 1941, released by Decca Records as catalog number 4030B, with the flip side “This Time the Dream's on Me”; re-recorded May 7, 1947, released by Columbia Records as catalog number 37858, with the flip side “Blue Prelude”)

Harry James and his orchestra (recorded December 30, 1941, released by Columbia Records as catalog number 36500, with the flip side “All For Love”)

Quincy Jones

Ledisi, (2007, Verve)

Little Milton, We're Gonna Make It (1965, Chess)

Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadians (vocal: Kenny Gardner; recorded January 27, 1942, released by Decca Records as catalog number 4177A, with the flip side “Frankie and Johnny”

Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra (vocal: Willie Smith)

Nellie Lutcher (released by Decca Records as catalog number 29284, with the flip side “Breezin' Along with the Breeze”)

Katie Melua (Piece by Piece, 2005)

Johnny Mercer (released by Capitol Records as catalog number 1608, with the flip side “Candy”)

Johnny Mercer, Jo Stafford, and The Pied Pipers (recorded 1943, released by Capitol Records as catalog number 10001, with the flip side “On the Nodaway Road”)

Helen Shapiro

Artie Shaw and his Orchestra (vocal "Hot Lips" Page) (recorded September 2, 1941, released by Victor Records as catalog number 27609, with the flip side “This Time the Dream's on Me”)

Frank Sinatra (1958)

Kate Smith (recorded February 12, 1942, released by Columbia Records as catalog number 36534, with the flip side “How Do I Know It's Real?”)

Joe Turner with the Freddie Slack Trio (recorded January 28, 1942, released by Decca Records as catalog number 8606, with the flip side “Cry Baby Blues”)

Joe Turner with Howard Biggs' Orchestra (recorded January 22, 1958, released by Atlantic Records as catalog number 1184, with the flip side “(We're Gonna) Jump for Joy”)

Fred Waring's Singers (recorded June 23, 1942, released by Decca Records as catalog number 29218, with the flip side “That Old Black Magic”)

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 Pig 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". Additionally, the musical riff "my mama done tol' me" is used to identify a black duck from 'South' Germany in the 1942 Looney Tunes cartoon The Ducktators, and the song is featured prominently (with revised lyrics) in the 1943 Merrie Melody cartoon Fifth Column Mouse. In the 1942 cartoon, Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid, Bugs Bunny half-mutters the song, changing the lyrics to, "My mamma done told me, a buzzard is two face..."

Rochester Van Jones, would occasionally sing the beginning of the song on the Jack Benny radio program.Further Information

Get more info on 'Blues In The Night'.

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