When Sunny Gets Blue
| "When Sunny Gets Blue" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Johnny Mathis and Ray Conniff and his Orchestra | ||||
| from the album Johnny's Greatest Hits | ||||
| A-side | "Wonderful! Wonderful!" | |||
| Released | November 5, 1956 | |||
| Recorded | 1956 | |||
| Studio | Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 2:34 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Marvin Fisher Jack Segal | |||
| Producer(s) | Ray Conniff | |||
| Johnny Mathis singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"When Sunny Gets Blue" is a song written by Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal, which has become a jazz standard.[1] The song was originally recorded by Johnny Mathis and Ray Conniff and his Orchestra in 1956 and became a big hit.
Notable recordings
- Johnny Mathis and Ray Conniff and his Orchestra (1956) - Released as the 'B' side of "Wonderful! Wonderful!".
- Nat King Cole - for his album Love Is the Thing (1957).
- June Christy - for her album Fair and Warmer! (1957)
- Anita O'Day - for her album Waiter, Make Mine Blues (1961)
- Sarah Vaughan - for her album Sarah + 2 (1962).
- Blossom Dearie - for her album May I Come In? (1964)
- Matt Monro - for his album Here's to My Lady (1966)[2]
- Barbra Streisand - for her album Simply Streisand (1967)
- McCoy Tyner - for his album Today and Tomorrow (1963)
Legal case
"When Sunny Gets Blue" begins with the lyrics "When Sunny gets blue, her eyes get grey and cloudy; then the rain begins to fall." In 1984, DJ Rick Dees, a radio personality at Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM, recorded a parody of the song for an album, including the lyrics "When Sunny sniffs glue, her eyes get red and bulgy, then her hair begins to fall". Dees sought permission to use the lyrics, but was refused; subsequently, he used 38 bars of the song under the fair use doctrine. In 1986, composers Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal sued Dees for copyright violation and defamation in U.S. District Court for Los Angeles. At the request of the parties involved, the district court issued a summary judgment, finding for Dees.[3] Fisher appealed the case to the U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th District, in Pasadena, California. The appellate court affirmed the judgment of the lower court in Fisher v. Dees 794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986), stating that the parody was intended to "criticize" for the purposes of humor, not to "copy", and did not damage the marketability of the original because they were two different markets of music.[4][5] The case has become a landmark one, further refining the doctrine of fair use in U.S. copyright law.
References
- ^ Johnson, J. Wilfred (5 August 2010). Ella Fitzgerald: An Annotated Discography; Including a Complete Discography of Chick Webb. McFarland. p. 283. ISBN 978-0-7864-5039-8.
- ^ "Discogs.com". Discogs.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
- ^ http://mcir.usc.edu/cases/1980-1989/Pages/fisherdees.html
- ^ Sadler, Roger L. (10 March 2005). Electronic Media Law. SAGE. p. 318. ISBN 978-1-4129-0588-6.
- ^ Vaidhyanathan, Siva (1 August 2001). Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity. NYU Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-8147-8806-6.