AM I BLUE

Created on 12/06/2002
Latest update on 02/05/2023

Artist: Ethel Waters
Author: Harry Akst/Grant Clarke
Label: Columbia
Year: 1929

In film On With The Show, the first one in Technicolor. Backed up by Ben Selvin (violin) and the Dorsey Brothers. First black woman to headline at the Palace Theatre in New York, starred at the Plantation Club (where she introduced Dinah) and the Cotton Club before she went to Hollywood. For a time she was the best paid woman in showbizz, black or white. Since Ethel, black performers were not necessarily limited to the blues.

Covers:

1929:

Libby Holman

1929:

Annette Hanshaw

1929:

Nat Shilkret

1929:

Irving Mills

1929:

Ben Selvin

1929:

Dorsey Brothers

1929:

Tom Gerun

1936:

Milton Brown & His Brownies

1937:

Bunny Berigan

1940:

Buster Bailey

1941:

Billie Holiday

1944:

Hoagy Carmichael & Lauren Bacall [in film To Have And To Have Not]

1944:

Jo Stafford & Her V-Disc Boys

1957:

Eddie Cochran

1960:

Mose Allison

1960:

Dave Brubeck

1961:

Fats Domino

1961:

Ray Charles

1966:

Julie London

1968:

Connie Francis

1972:

Bette Midler

1973:

Cher

1975:

Barbra Streisand [in film Funny Lady]

1979:

Robert Gordon

1979:

Willie Nelson

1984:

Elkie Brooks

1986:

Linda Ronstadt

1987:

John Lone [in film The Last Emperor]

1989:

Ruth Brown

1993:

Madeline Bell

Composer Harry Akst also wrote Baby Face, coauthor Grant Clarke Second Hand Rose. Am I Blue as by George Strait (n°1 C&W in '87) is a different song.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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