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Vi Wickam

Champion Fiddler, Inspired Performer

You are here: Home / Fiddling / Fiddle Tune a Day / Blue Skies – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 247

September 20, 2012

Blue Skies – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 247

Blue Skies is such a sweet song. It’s got a beautiful melody, great chords, and cool lyrics. What’s even cooler is the tension between talking about how everything is turning around and positive, and the chords have a distinctly minor, saddish feel.

I think that tension between the chords and the melody create a perfect tension to elevate the interest of the listener to this song.

It’s also great to have David Wiatrolik joining me on this tune. It’s fun to have someone local who I can play some swing tunes with.

 

This tune is on my album Swinging at the Savoy!

Listen on Spotify | Buy the Album

Blue Skies (song) From Wikipedia

“Blue Skies” is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1926.

History

The song was composed in 1926 as a last-minute addition to the Rodgers and Hart musical Betsy. Although the show only ran for 39 performances, “Blue Skies” was an instant success, with audiences on opening night demanding 24 encores of the piece from star Belle Baker.[1] During the final repetition, Ms. Baker forgot her lyrics, prompting Berlin to sing them from his seat in the front row.[2]

In 1927, the music was published and Ben Selvin’s recorded version was a #1 hit. That same year, it became one of the first songs to be featured in a talkie, when Al Jolson performed it in The Jazz Singer. Another version of the song was recorded by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra in 1935 [Victor Scroll 25136]. 1946 was also a notable year for the song, with a Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire film taking its title, and two recorded versions by Count Basie and Benny Goodman reaching #8 and #9 on the pop charts, respectively. Crossing genres, Willie Nelson’s recording of “Blue Skies” was a #1 country music hit in 1978. It was a major western swing and country standard already in 1939, by Moon Mullican, and in 1962 by Jim Reeves.

“Blue Skies” is one of many popular songs whose lyrics use a “Bluebird of happiness” as a symbol of cheer: “Bluebirds singing a song — Nothing but bluebirds all day long.”

Blue Skies Lyrics

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 

Blue skies 
Smiling at me 
Nothing but blue skies 
Do I see 

Bluebirds 
Singing a song 
Nothing but bluebirds 
All day long 

Never saw the sun shining so bright 
Never saw things going so right 
Noticing the days hurrying by 
When you’re in love, my how they fly 

Blue days 
All of them gone 
Nothing but blue skies 
From now on 

I should care if the wind blows east or west 
I should fret if the worst looks like the best 
I should mind if they say it can’t be true 
I should smile, that’s exactly what I do

Article by Vi Wickam / Fiddle Tune a Day, Fiddling, Videos / astaire, crosby, instant success, pop charts, western swing, wikipedia 20 Comments

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Comments

  1. Lani Nielsen says

    September 21, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    Love this one… very nice!

    Reply
  2. Joe Dobbs says

    September 21, 2012 at 3:23 pm

    Thanks for all your tunes. What a gift for fiddlers. The dog is barking in time. Is he classically trained or is he a drummer?

    Reply
  3. Deborah Dea Cushman-Johnson says

    April 7, 2014 at 2:14 pm

    Thank you. Great song to start the day…and the dog sings along.

    Reply
  4. Deborah Dea Cushman-Johnson says

    April 7, 2014 at 2:31 pm

    Listened to this three times this morning now. lol

    Reply
  5. Vi Wickam says

    April 11, 2014 at 7:14 pm

    Thanks, Deb. It's one of my favorite tunes. It's so groovy and fun.

    Reply
  6. Vi Wickam says

    April 11, 2014 at 7:14 pm

    Excellent!

    Reply
  7. Patrick Dooley says

    April 12, 2014 at 5:12 am

    Really smooth sound Vi- you really have a great jazz style. Loving the dog’s accompaniment- my violin teacher has a goldendoodle and she sit’s in the room during the lesson and listens…at some point she always wanders out of the room and jumps up on the piano to play a “chord”…then she comes back and “finishes” the lesson with us- it’s hysterical- you never notice her leave and then all of a sudden you hear the piano play.

    Reply
    • Vi Wickam says

      April 15, 2014 at 1:13 pm

      Thanks, Patrick. That’s a great story.

      Reply
  8. Michael Friedman says

    August 17, 2014 at 1:48 pm

    Fantastic musical performance and vocal accompanyment !

    Reply
    • Vi Wickam says

      August 18, 2014 at 11:05 am

      Thanks, Michael. Blue Skies is one of my favorite swing tunes.

      Reply
  9. Kathleen VanSoest says

    September 1, 2014 at 4:03 pm

    What a fun rendition!

    Reply
  10. Vi Wickam says

    September 24, 2014 at 3:03 pm

    Thanks, Kathleen! It's one of my favorites. 🙂

    Reply
  11. Kate Barnhart says

    September 25, 2014 at 11:26 am

    Perfect tune for this amazing day. Thanks Vi!

    Reply
  12. Francis Meador says

    October 3, 2014 at 6:52 pm

    Thank you! What a happy song! Great performance!

    Reply
  13. Vi Wickam says

    November 1, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    Thanks, Kate!

    Reply
  14. Vi Wickam says

    November 1, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    You're welcome. It's one of my all time favorites. 🙂

    Reply
  15. Stephanie Loo says

    January 10, 2015 at 1:38 pm

    A nice surprise to hear you sing! It's not an easy song, and you sounded great!

    Reply
  16. Patricia L Block says

    September 7, 2015 at 12:58 pm

    vi you play beautifully and you've got great rythem , your dad was really boasting about you and he was 100percent right for some reason my I pad is not able to make the daily connection but I will keep trying . By the way Belle baker wasn't she Bonnie Baker ?

    Reply
  17. Vi Wickam says

    September 10, 2015 at 1:14 am

    Thanks Patricia. 🙂 You might be right about Belle Baker. I'm not sure. If you click on the picture in the email it will take you to the page where you can play the videos.

    Reply
  18. Vi Wickam says

    September 10, 2015 at 1:15 am

    Thanks, Stephanie. 🙂

    Reply

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