{"id":8222,"date":"2011-07-06T07:30:45","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T11:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8222"},"modified":"2013-03-01T12:50:34","modified_gmt":"2013-03-01T17:50:34","slug":"whats-in-a-songmidweek-music-break-blue-skies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/whats-in-a-songmidweek-music-break-blue-skies\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s in a Song\/Midweek Music Break: “Blue Skies”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"F<\/span>ew people remember the short-lived 1926 musical Betsy<\/em> anymore, although its music and lyrics came from powerhouse songwriting duo Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. There’s a reason few people remember it: Rodgers and Hart had written nothing memorable for it. (A Hart-related site<\/a> calls it “a beautifully mounted mess, top-heavy with ensemble numbers in the Ziegfeld fashion.” Among those numbers, for instance, was a performance by someone called the Harmonica Symphony Orchestra. Umm, okay.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

<\/a>Few people remember its star, either, one Belle Baker. (That’s her over at the right.) But at the time, she was enough of a force that when she<\/em> didn’t care for the music, she could simply ignore the show’s — and the show-business — realities… and, in Act 2 on opening night, just start singing a song which Rodgers and Hart themselves hadn’t written. To say they were surprised probably understates the case. [*<\/a>]\n

The surprise was “Blue Skies,” written by Baker’s friend Irving Berlin. Apparently he’d been kicking it around in his head for some time, just hadn’t had the proper occasion to commit it to permanent form. Baker’s complaints about her solos in the show gave him that occasion.<\/p>\n

It was an immediate hit. Reportedly, the audience on that opening night so loved the song that they required twenty-four encores of it. For her part, Baker was delighted but also a little unnerved; says Wikipedia (alas, without attribution for the moment):<\/p>\n

During the final repetition, Ms. Baker forgot her lyrics, prompting Berlin to sing them from his seat in the front row.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I bet that<\/em> moment really tickled Rodgers and Hart!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

W<\/span>hat really triggered this week’s Midweek Music Break<\/em> entry was a sentimental request from a RAMH<\/em> regular, hoping I could include Willie Nelson’s popular version of the song from 1978. (Lyrics below, as always.)<\/p>\n

[Below, click Play button to begin <\/em>Blue Skies (Willie Nelson). While audio is playing, volume control appears at left — a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 3:36 long.]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[audio:blueskies_willienelson.mp3|titles=’Blue Skies’|artists=Willie Nelson]<\/div>\n

Lyrics:<\/p>\n

Blue Skies<\/em><\/strong>
\n(by Irving Berlin; performance by Willie Nelson)<\/em><\/p>\n

Blue skies smilin’ at me
\nNothin’ but blue skies do I see
\nBluebirds singin’ a song
\nNothin’ but blue skies from now on<\/p>\n

I never saw the sun shinin’ so bright
\nNever saw things goin’ so right
\nNoticing the days hurrying by
\nWhen you’re in love, my how they fly<\/p>\n

Blue days, all of them gone
\nNothin’ but blue skies from now on<\/p>\n

[instrumental break]<\/em><\/p>\n

Blue skies smilin’ at me
\nNothin’ but blue skies do I see
\nBlue days, all of them gone
\nNothin’ but blue skies from now on<\/p>\n

Blue skies smilin’ at me
\nNothin’ but blue skies do I see
\nBlue days, all of them gone
\nNothin’ but blue skies from now on<\/p>\n

Blue skies smilin’ at me
\nNothin’ but blue skies do I see
\nBlue days, all of them gone
\nNothin’ but blue skies from now on<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Blue Skies” has been covered by many, many other artists since that first twenty-five-times introduction. One of the classic renditions comes from Ella Fitzgerald in 1958, on her Very Best of the Irving Berlin Songbook<\/em> album. Says the Jazz Standards site<\/a>:<\/p>\n

After a subtle rubato introduction, Fitzgerald offers up a hard-swinging interpretation of the melody followed by a truly stunning scat solo.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Below, <\/em>Blue Skies (Ella Fitzgerald). This clip is 3:43 long.]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[audio:blueskies_ellafitzgerald.mp3|titles=’Blue Skies’|artists=Ella Fitzgerald]<\/div>\n

(That scat solo starts about 1:10 or so into the recording, and takes up about two-thirds of its entire length. :))<\/p>\n

My own favorite version of “Blue Skies” (maybe unsurprisingly<\/a>) is the brassy instrumental from Benny Goodman’s 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. As I understand it, this immediately followed the intermission that night; if so, it seems a brilliant assertion (perhaps to themselves, as much as the audience) of the orchestra’s confidence: We’re really <\/em>doing this, people!<\/em>:<\/p>\n

[Below, <\/em>Blue Skies (Benny Goodman). This clip is 3:18 long.]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

[audio:blueskies_bennygoodman.mp3|titles=’Blue Skies’|artists=Benny Goodman]<\/div>\n

<\/a>___________________________________<\/p>\n

* Much though I love this story of the surprise sprung on Messrs. Rodgers and Hart, I’ve come to doubt that it was quite the last-minute stunner. At the least, I wondered: Wouldn’t Belle Baker at least have told the orchestra about the switch???<\/p>\n

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Few people remember the short-lived 1926 musical Betsy anymore, although its music and lyrics came from powerhouse songwriting duo Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. There’s a reason few people remember it: Rodgers and Hart had written nothing memorable for it. (A Hart-related site calls it “a beautifully mounted mess, top-heavy with ensemble numbers in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38,1027,2252,74],"tags":[107,668,1521,2442,2443,2444,2445],"class_list":{"0":"post-8222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-backwards","7":"category-whats-in-a-song-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-midweek-music-break","9":"category-music","10":"tag-benny-goodman","11":"tag-rodgers-and-hart","12":"tag-ella-fitzgerald","13":"tag-blue-skies","14":"tag-irving-berlin","15":"tag-belle-baker","16":"tag-willie-nelson","17":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-28C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8223,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8222\/revisions\/8223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}