The song of the day for

About This Song

“Blues in the Night” was written in 1941 for the film of the same name by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Arlen wrote the music first and wrote a true blues song. Johnny Mercer, who later wrote the lyrics, drew on his southern heritage to write the exceptional blues lyrics.

In addition to our love for the music of Tony Bennett, we are big fans of the writer Kenneth Millar–whose pen name was Ross MacDonald–and this was his favorite song. Millar was true jazz fan and loved the American songbook. In a letter to his friend Eudora Welty, who had just seen a review of George Gershwin songs at the New Stage Theater in Jackson, Mississippi (where your author was the resident set and lighting designer once upon time), he wrote

I’m glad to hear of the celebration of Gershwin. He and Cole Porter and Ellington were the great celebrators and deserve to be celebrated. The other night, for the first time in three years (since Linda [his daughter] died) I got out some Ellington records and played them.

An author of hard-boiled crime novels after my own heart.

About This Version

Tony Bennett first recorded “Blues in the Night” in 1957 for his second jazz album The Beat of My Heart. This song features the great Chico Hamilton on drums. The Beat of My Heart was conceived and devised by Bennett and Ralph Sharon, who arranged and conducted.

“Blues in the Night,” as well as The Beat of My Heart, is available from iTunes.

About Today

For our Saturday video, we present this clip from the film Blues In The Night.