90 Years of Clear Weather:

Blue Skies Throughout the Ages

Claire Ashur

University of Mary Washington College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Music

April, 2016

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Abstract

Irving Berlin’s tune, “Blue Skies” received its compositional debut in the 1926 Rodgers

and Hart musical, Betsy. Although the musical was unsuccessful, “Blue Skies” went on to

become an American favorite. Over the past ninety years “Blue Skies” has been performed and

interpreted by a variety of artists such as Maxine Sullivan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Willie Nelson.

Through examining the tune in multiple styles this paper will showcase the evolution of the song

since its Broadway origins, while also emphasizing how the central message of the song remains

unchanged.

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Since its Broadway debut, Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” has been performed and adapted

by a multitude of artists such as Maxine Sullivan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Willie Nelson. Even

though the tune has been transformed from its Broadway origins, the central message is not lost.

In the 1920s, the message of “Blue Skies” was one audiences related to and yearned to hear.

Ninety years later, the message retains its positive tone and continues to uplift audiences in the

21st century.

ORIGINS

On December 28, 1926 “Blue Skies” debuted in the musical Betsy at the New Amsterdam

Theatre in New York. Betsy’s plot revolved around Mama Kitzel who refused to let any of her

children get married until her unlucky in love daughter, Betsy, found a husband. Belle Baker,

the actress in the titular role, became concerned during production that the musical did not have a

show-stopping number. In order to remedy the situation Betsy’s producer, Florenz Ziegfield,

reached out to friend and collaborator Irving Berlin in hopes that he could write a standout song

for the musical. Despite having a short turnaround time, Berlin agreed to compose a piece for

Baker (Magee).

Unbeknownst to Rogers and Hart, the composers of Besty’s music and lyrics, “Blue

Skies” was interpolated into the musical. On opening night Baker performed the tune twenty-

three times. When she sang the song for a twenty-fourth time she forgot the lyrics prompting

Ziegfield to shine the spotlight on Berlin who is rumored to have stood up and helped Baker with

the lyrics (Magee, 566). Although “Blue Skies” was well received, Betsy was unsuccessful. After

only thirty-nine performances the musical closed on January 29, 1927.

While Betsy was still on Broadway, American-born French singer and dancer Josephine

Baker (1906-1975) recorded her version of “Blue Skies” on January 12, 1927. Her version most

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closely resembles the Broadway original. The tune begins with a trumpet playing the last eight

bars of the tune, a standard jazz introduction. Baker’s version retains the introductory verse

beginning with “I’m blue just as blue as I could be…” In later adaptations the introductory verse

is dropped and singers begin the tune right at the A section.

Regarding form, Baker’s version is in traditional AABA form. Even the instrumental solo

section is conventional, with the instrumentalists only making minor embellishments. The

trumpet takes the A section, followed by the saxophone solo in the B section, and the trumpet

solos for a final time at the return of the A section. Overall, Josephine Baker’s version is pretty

straightforward and only contains slight modifications to the melody. Her version reflects the

original deliberate simplicity of the tune. Over the next ten years “Blue Skies” truly begins to

transform with the development of melodic and harmonic variation.

EARLY SWING

On August 6, 1937 Maxine Sullivan (1911-1987) recorded an early swing version of

“Blue Skies.” Sullivan’s version represents the beginning of vocalists taking on more

improvisatory roles. Singers, like Sullivan, began to embrace the qualities of instruments and

challenged the notion of what singers could do vocally.

Her approach to the chart is more relaxed melodically and rhythmically compared to

Josephine Baker’s version. Additionally, Sullivan takes the tune at a slower tempo. Most

notably, Sullivan uses melodic inversions to add a new color to the song. Figure 1.1. shows the

original melody as heard in Baker’s version. In Figure 1.2 Sullivan inverts the melody in

measure 5. Instead of going from A down to middle C, Sullivan goes up a minor third from A to

C. Sullivan also inverts the last two bars of the phrase with a descending line as opposed to the

original ascending line.

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FIGURE 1.1

FIGURE 1.2

Blue Skies in the Style of Maxine Sullivan

BEBOP AND SCAT

Twenty years after Sullivan’s recording, Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) recorded “Blue

Skies” in March of 1958. Her version cemented “Blue Skies” as a jazz standard. Fitzgerald was

discovered in1934 when she won a talent competition at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. The

following year Fitzgerald met jazz drummer Chick Webb and performed with his orchestra.

Upon Webb’s death in 1939, Fitzgerald took on the role of bandleader. Two years later

Fitzgerald began playing with Dizzie Gillespie’s band where she began to expand her art form.

During her time with Gillespie, Fitzgerald used the bebop language to develop her signature scat

(Oxley).

Fitzgerald’s interpretation of “Blue Skies” pushed the musical envelope. Through

scatting, Fitzgerald paraphrased the theme and used the scale to hint at the melody (Dankworth,

17). Moreover, Fitzgerald embraced the notion of scat as the vocalist’s vehicle for

improvisation. In addition to melodic and harmonic changes, Fitzgerald speeds the tempo up

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significantly compared to the versions done by Baker and Sullivan. Overall, Fitzgerald’s

rendition represents the total transformation of the tune from its Broadway origins.

Blue Skies in the style of Ella Fitzgerald

COUNTRY

Two decades later Willie Nelson’s version marks the return to the deliberate simplicity of

the tune. Nelson’s album Stardust, released in April 1978, shocked country audiences when he

deemed it a collection of his favorite tunes, all of which were Tin Pan Alley songs. Nelson’s

version captures the simplicity of the song through a slower tempo, shorter note duration, and

minimal embellishment of the melody (Magee). The only prolonged notes are towards the end

of the tune, when Nelson sings the final eight bars. Contrary to Fitzgerald’s version, the only

variation in Nelson’s version is in the guitar solo. Through using then modern instrumentation

Nelson updated “Blue Skies” making it accessible for audiences of the late 70s.

Blue Skies in the style of Willie Nelson

CONCLUSION

The first three versions of “Blue Skies” provide a history of the development of the jazz

vocalist, while Nelson’s version successfully brought the music of Tin Pan Alley to a new

audience. Nelson brought the tune back full circle and helped solidify “Blue Skies” as a cross-

genre hit. Notably, Sullivan and Fitzgerald pushed the boundaries on what could be done with

“Blue Skies”, representing the newfound liberties of jazz vocalists. Despite all the contrasting

versions, the sentiment always shines through even ninety years after its debut.

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References

Dankworth, A. (1968). Jazz, An Introduction to its Musical Basis. London, England: Oxford

University Press.

Holmes, J. R. (2016). Irving Berlin. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.

Josephine Baker. (2016). In Encyclopedia Britannica online. Retrieved from

http://www.britannica.com/biography/Josephine-Baker

Magee, J. (2000). Blue skies: Ethnic affiliations and musical transformations. The Music

Quarterly, 84, 537-580.

Nelson, Willie. (2014). Encyclopedia Britannica.

Oxley, S. (2016). Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.

Wilson, J. (1987, April 9). Maxine Sullivan, 75, Is Dead. The New York Times. Retrieved from

http://nytimes.com