Blue Moon (1934 song)
Blue Moon is a classic popular song. It was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934, and has become a standard ballad.
Lyrics
Blue moon, you saw me standing alone without a dream in my heart without a love of my own.
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for you heard me saying a prayer for somebody I really could care for.
And then there suddenly appeared before me, the only one my arms will ever hold I heard somebody whisper, "Please adore me." and when I looked, the moon had turned to gold.
Blue moon, now I'm no longer alone without a dream in my heart without a love of my own.
History
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were contracted to MGM in May 1933. They were soon commissioned to write the songs for Hollywood Party, a film that was to star many of the studio's top artistes. Richard Rodgers later recalled "One of our ideas was to include a scene in which Jean Harlow is shown as an innocent young girl saying - or rather singing- her prayers. How the sequence fitted into the movie I haven't the foggiest notion, but the purpose was to express Jean's overwhelming ambition to become a movie star ('Oh Lord, if you're not busy up there,/I ask for help with a prayer/ So please don't give me the air...')." The song was not even recorded and MGM Song #225 Prayer ((Oh Lord, make me a movie star) dated June 14 1933 was registered for copyright as an unpublished work on July 10 1933.Template:Inote
Lorenz Hart wrote new lyrics for the tune to create a title song for the 1934 film Manhattan Melodrama: "Act One:/You gulp your coffee and run;/Into the subway you crowd./Don’t breathe, it isn’t allowed".Template:Inote The song, which was also titled It's Just That Kind Of Play, was cut from the film before release, and registered for copyright as an unpublished work on March 30 1934. The studio then asked for a nightclub number for the film. Rodgers still liked the melody so Hart wrote a third lyric: The Bad In Every Man, (Oh, Lord …/I could be good to a lover,/But then I always discover/The bad in ev’ry manTemplate:Inote), which was sung by Shirley Ross. The song, which was also released as sheet music was not a hit.Template:Inote
After the film was released by MGM, Jack Robbins—the head of the studio's publishing companyTemplate:Inote—decided that the tune was suited to commercial release but needed more romantic lyrics and a punchier title. Hart was initially reluctant to write yet another lyric but he was persuaded.Template:Inote The result was "Blue moon/you saw me standing alone/without a dream in my heart/without a love on my own".
Robbins licensed the song to Hollywood Hotel, a radio program that used it as the theme. On January 15, 1934 Connie Boswell recorded it for Columbia Records. It subsequently featured in at least seven more MGM films including Marx Brothers at the Circus and Viva Las Vegas.Template:Inote
Since 1934, the song has been recorded by many of the great performers of the last seventy years: Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, and Tony Bennett, with Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Django Reinhardt pitching in with the most famous jazz versions. The first crossover recording to Rock and Roll came from Elvis Presley, but the version that really stirred things up came from The Marcels. They were a doo-wop group. In 1961, they shocked the purists (and the composers) with a new version that began with the bass going, "bomp-baba-bomp" and "dip-da-dip". Still, the record sold a million and is featured in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
In 1978, an arrangement by Jeff Funk was used in the film Grease. This has been followed by a Country and Western version from The Mavericks and curious respect from Bob Dylan. More recently, it has been recorded by Rod Stewart. Cybill Shepherd also sang "Blue Moon" on an episode of Moonlighting (the detective agency in that show was called "Blue Moon Investigations".)
The Canadian band Cowboy Junkies recorded a rendition of "Blue Moon" on their 1988 album The Trinity Session — their version combined the song into a medley with an original song written by the band.
The song is the official club chant of Manchester City football club fans and is the tune used by the International Boxing Federation world champion Ricky Hatton, a fan of the club, as he makes his entrance into the ring.
In the 1982 film An American Werewolf in London, three different versions of the song are played during the beginning, middle and end credits of the film.
External links
References
- Brent, Bill. 'The Story of Blue Moon', Weekly Bugle. Retrieved June 6 2005
- Hart, Lorenzo; Hart, Dorothy; Kimball, Robert. The Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart (New York: Knopf, 1986). ISBN 0394546806
- Kanfer, Stefan. 'Richard Rodgers: Enigma Variations', City Journal, Autumn 2003.
- Martini, Alessandro. 'Song: Blue Moon', LorenzHart.org. Retrieved June 6 2005
- Moser, Enoch. 'A Tribute to Richard Rodgers', Community Band of Brevard (2002). Retrieved June 6 2005.