| Blue Moon (song) |
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LYRICS :Blue moon, you saw me standing alone :Without a dream in my heart :Without a love of my own. :Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for :You heard me saying a prayer for :Someone I really could care for. :And then there suddenly appeared before me :The only one my arms will ever hold. :I heard somebody whisper, "Please adore me." :And when I looked, the moon had turned to gold. :Blue moon, now I'm no longer alone :Without a dream in my heart :Without a love of my own. The lyrics presumably refer to an English idiomatic expression: if something happens "once in a blue moon" it happens almost never. The narrator of the song is relating a stroke of luck so unlikey that it must have taken place under a blue moon. HISTORY Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were contracted to MGM in May 1933. They were soon commissioned to write the songs for '' Hollywood Party '', a film that was to star many of the studio's top artistes. Richard Rodgers later recalled "One of our ideas was to include a scene in which Jean Harlow is shown as an innocent young girl saying - or rather singing- her prayers. How the sequence fitted into the movie I haven't the foggiest notion, but the purpose was to express Jean's overwhelming ambition to become a movie star ('Oh Lord, if you're not busy up there,/I ask for help with a prayer/ So please don't give me the air...')." The song was not even recorded and MGM Song #225 ''Prayer ((Oh Lord, make me a movie star)'' dated June 14 1933 was registered for copyright as an unpublished work on July 10 1933 . Lorenz Hart wrote new lyrics for the tune to create a title song for the 1934 film ''. The song, which was also released as sheet music was not a hit. After the film was released by MGM , Jack Robbins—the head of the studio's publishing company—decided that the tune was suited to commercial release but needed more romantic lyrics and a punchier title. Hart was initially reluctant to write yet another lyric but he was persuaded. The result was "Blue moon/you saw me standing alone/without a dream in my heart/without a love of my own". Robbins licensed the song to ''Hollywood Hotel'', a radio program that used it as the theme. On January 15 , 1934 Connie Boswell recorded it for Columbia Records . It subsequently featured in at least seven more MGM films including '' Marx Brothers At The Circus '' and '' Viva Las Vegas ''. Since , Frank Sinatra , and Tony Bennett , with Ella Fitzgerald , Louis Armstrong , Dizzy Gillespie , and Django Reinhardt pitching in with the most famous Jazz versions. The first crossover recording to Rock And Roll came from Elvis Presley , but the version that really stirred things up came from The Marcels , a Doo-wop group. In 1961, they shocked the purists (and the composers) with a new version that began with the bass going, "bomp-baba-bomp" and "dip-da-dip". Still, the record sold a million and is featured in '' The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll''. In 1978, an arrangement by Jeff Funk was used in the film '' Grease ''. This has been followed by a Country And Western version from The Mavericks and curious respect from Bob Dylan . More recently, it has been recorded by Rod Stewart . Cybill Shepherd also sang "Blue Moon" on an episode of '' Moonlighting '' (the detective agency in that show was called "Blue Moon Investigations".) The Canadian band Cowboy Junkies recorded a rendition of "Blue Moon" on their 1988 album '' The Trinity Session '' — their version combined the song into a Medley with an original song written by the band. The song is the official club chant of Manchester City Football Club fans and is the tune used by the International Boxing Federation world champion Ricky Hatton , a fan of the club, as he makes his entrance into the ring. In the 1982 film '' An American Werewolf In London '', three different versions of the song are played during the beginning, middle and end credits of the film. EXTERNAL LINKS
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