The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5416   Message #669395
Posted By: masato sakurai
14-Mar-02 - 06:00 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req/ADD: Blue Skies (Irving Berlin)
Subject: RE: ADD LYR: BLUE SKIES
Levy has this sheet music, but doesn't show the score image.

Title: Irving Berlin's Blue Skies. [cover autographed by Irving Berlin].
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Words and Music By Irving Berlin. Ukulele arr. by May Singhi Breen, "The Ukulele Lady."
Publication: New York: Irving Berlin, Inc., 1607 Broadway, 1927.
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice; ukulele
First Line: I was blue just as blue as I could be, ev'ry day was a cloudy day for me
First Line of Chorus: Blue Skies smiling at me Nothign but Blue Skies do I see
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: Leff

The (original) first stanza is:

I was blue, just as blue as I could be
Ev'ry day was a cloudy day for me
Then good luck came a-knocking at my door
Skies were gray but they're not gray anymore
(From HERE, and Lyle Lovett's version)

"Bing recorded the title tune from his movie with Fred Astaire on July 18, 1946, but Bing's version never charted. Perhaps this was because Bing's rendition of this up-beat song was curiously down-tempo, unlike the Willie Nelson reprise of the 1970s." (From Crosby Lyrics site). The movie is Blue Skies.

"'Blue Skies' was the most popular song in 1929 - all across the land, but especially in Wall Street. Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" is one of those tunes that gets stuck in your head, playing over and over for days in the windmills of your mind. And its unmitigated optimism expressed through its lyrics is sort of catchy, too. "Blue Skies smiling at me, Nothing but blue skies do I see." Hey! It's a great world out there! Isn't it?! Those words served as a pathetically ironic counterpoint to the tragic market events of late 1929 and aftermath. Ironically, the five stanzas of unbridled confidence in the present became the overture to the woeful Great Depression years of the not too distant future."(From BLUE SKIES AND MARKET BLUES (1929 & 2000))

MIDI (with lyrics) is HERE. Can be heard HERE (Irving Berlin's Blue Skies - As to be heard in Star Trek: Nemesis), too.

~Masato