We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Blue Skies

from Now at Last by Ellen Warkentine

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

The song was composed in 1926 as a last-minute addition to the Rodgers and Hart musical Betsy. Although the show ran for only 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 (as The Knickerbockers with vocals by Charles Kaley) was a 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. The song was recorded for all of the major and dime store labels of the time. A version was recorded by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra in 1935 (Victor 25136). 1946 was also a notable year for the song, with a Bing Crosby/Fred Astaire film taking its title along with two recorded versions by Count Basie and Benny Goodman reaching #8 and #9 on the pop charts, respectively. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye performed the song in the 1954 film White Christmas. 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, when it was performed by Moon Mullican.

Thelonious Monk's 1947 composition "In Walked Bud" is based on the chord changes to "Blue Skies."

The song was featured prominently in the film Star Trek: Nemesis, as sung by Commander Data during the wedding at the start of the film. It is sung again at the very end of the film by his "brother," the android B-4, during the final scene set in the 24th century, a time period not revisited by the Star Trek franchise for another 18 years, until the release of Star Trek: Picard in 2020. The song "Blue Skies" is featured in that series' premiere episode during a dream sequence involving Data and Captain Picard. The song receives a cover by lead actress Isa Briones for the 10th episode when Data's "spirit" dies.

"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." The sunny optimism of the lyrics are undercut by the minor key giving the words an ironic feeling.

(From Wikipedia)

lyrics

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 never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things going oh-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

credits

from Now at Last, released March 2, 2022
Ellen Warkentine - acoustic and electric pianos, vocals

Produced and mixed by Chris Schlarb
at BIG EGO, Long Beach, CA.

Engineered by Devin O'Brien

Mastered by JJ Golden

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Ellen Warkentine image

Ellen Warkentine Los Angeles, California

Ellen Warkentine is a theatrical multi-instrumentalist composer and performing artist based in New York/Los Angeles.

Her melodic work references avant-pop, early jazz, and vaudeville; her influences include Kurt Weill, Bjork, and Stephin Merritt.

She is a long-time collaborator with the award-winning Four Larks Theatre, and co-creator of the absurd “fauxpera” LOLPERA. ... more

contact / help

Contact Ellen Warkentine

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Ellen Warkentine, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now