The Originals © by Arnold Rypens

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.

AM I BLUE

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