Sung by: William Gillespie - The other actors say that this is "real New Orleans blues". No. The writer, Johnny Mercer was raised in Savannah Georgia. He attended the black churches there and sang with his friends, servants and fishermen. By the time he went to prep school he was steeped in it. When his dreams of Princeton were dashed by the great depression, Mercer too his unique ear into the Vaudeville scene. This song is unique for a reason.
Harold Arlen wrote it. A Jewish boy from New York. Mercer wrote the lyrics long after Arlen had written the music. It is likely Arlen played it for Gershwin, first. I think they would have hung out in Harlem, where most of the music - jazz and swing - came out of every city along the Mississippi, and Chicago. If they heard the blues, it would have been on the street corners. Correct me, please, if I’m off kilter.
@@kathyphillips8823 This song was written by both collaboratively for a film .. the "music" is a12 bar blues with a sweetly creative twist to the melody but it came together around the lyrics. The lyrics drove the identity of this song. "The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues in the Night." 2. "Arlen and Mercer wrote the entire score for the 1941 film Blues in the Night. One requirement was for a blues song to be sung in a jail cell.[7] As usual with Mercer, the composer wrote the music first, then Mercer wrote the words. Arlen later recalled: 3. "The whole thing just poured out. And I knew in my guts, without even thinking what Johnny would write for a lyric, that this was strong, strong, strong! When Mercer wrote "Blues in the Night", I went over his lyric and I started to hum it over his desk. It sounded marvelous once I got to the second stanza but that first twelve was weak tea. On the third or fourth page of his work sheets I saw some lines-one of them was "My momma done tol' me, when I was in knee pants." I said, "Why don't you try that?" It was one of the very few times I've ever suggested anything like that to John." - Harold Arlen
@@jensenbell Thanks for straightening that out. I just read those exact words on Wikipedia. Did you put them there, or copy them. Love it when people get things right. I HOPE this is correct? Going to do a bit more research than just an internet search. If any corrections I'll come back to it. All the best! :)
What a beautiful voice .... I'm hearing this for the first time ... this brings shivers up my spine... There are other versions I really enjoy, but this.... this is art.
@RuBeN729 Black people ARE American music, the foundation if nothing else. Jazz, Rock and Roll, and R&B would not have existed without them. White people created... country music. Nothing to brag about.
@@chbonnet I believe you are correct. In looking up the discography of the song, I believe this is the ONLY time you will hear William Gillespie sing this. FYI: I agree with @bhan99 this is the BEST version, period. Mr. Gillespie's voice & delivery have never been TOUCHED by any of the later covers, IMHO.
I think this one is more bluesy, Sinatra's version has kept the 'torch song' element but taken out the blues - you could say that's the modern jazz approach. In some respects the 2 versions represent the swing era approach and the post-bop approach to such a ballad. For me, the best version is the Ella Mae Morse, Johnny Mercer, & Pied Pipers' version (accessible on UA-cam). Mercer's singing, especially, captures the soul of this song. Classy though he always is, Sinatra's just a little too slow for me.
+Vern Marshall When I first listened to the Sinatra version, I also thought it was too slow - but the more I listened, the more I came to appreciate how he captured the deep melancholy of the lyrics. Like a lot of great blues songs, it can be taken at different tempos and still sound good. But in Sinatra;s version, there is no swing at all. He sings a dark night of the soul and the loneliness is almost scary. There are no back up vocals at all. Nothing bouncy at all.
Yeah - it is kind of like the old joke about every rock'n'roll song being a rewrite of 'Yankee Doodle.' But Americans didn't just import music; they synthesized it into multiple new forms.
Sinatra's version is more soulful, more melancholy, more lonely. He and Nelson Riddle were an incomparable team. Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote the song and they were brilliant.
@@kathyphillips8823 The ding was written for the movie. Like any great blues song, it can be played in various ways and still sound great. The original lyrics by Johnny Mercer are clearly meant for a man to sing. A man in a jail cell.
Best version of the song, IMHO. Wish it was available as a single.
The best and the original version
:) The singer in this clip was my grandfather.
arbygil gorgeous! What a spectacular voice
do you speak of William Gillespie ?
Pretty Cool!
The bluest rendition of the bluest song ever written.
The original is still the best! Blues as blues should be!
Sung by: William Gillespie
-
The other actors say that this is "real New Orleans blues". No. The writer, Johnny Mercer was raised in Savannah Georgia. He attended the black churches there and sang with his friends, servants and fishermen. By the time he went to prep school he was steeped in it. When his dreams of Princeton were dashed by the great depression, Mercer too his unique ear into the Vaudeville scene. This song is unique for a reason.
Harold Arlen wrote it. A Jewish boy from New York. Mercer wrote the lyrics long after Arlen had written the music. It is likely Arlen played it for Gershwin, first. I think they would have hung out in Harlem, where most of the music - jazz and swing - came out of every city along the Mississippi, and Chicago. If they heard the blues, it would have been on the street corners. Correct me, please, if I’m off kilter.
@@kathyphillips8823 This song was written by both collaboratively for a film .. the "music" is a12 bar blues with a sweetly creative twist to the melody but it came together around the lyrics. The lyrics drove the identity of this song. "The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues in the Night." 2. "Arlen and Mercer wrote the entire score for the 1941 film Blues in the Night. One requirement was for a blues song to be sung in a jail cell.[7] As usual with Mercer, the composer wrote the music first, then Mercer wrote the words. Arlen later recalled:
3. "The whole thing just poured out. And I knew in my guts, without even thinking what Johnny would write for a lyric, that this was strong, strong, strong! When Mercer wrote "Blues in the Night", I went over his lyric and I started to hum it over his desk. It sounded marvelous once I got to the second stanza but that first twelve was weak tea. On the third or fourth page of his work sheets I saw some lines-one of them was "My momma done tol' me, when I was in knee pants." I said, "Why don't you try that?" It was one of the very few times I've ever suggested anything like that to John." - Harold Arlen
@@jensenbell Thanks for straightening that out. I just read those exact words on Wikipedia. Did you put them there, or copy them. Love it when people get things right. I HOPE this is correct? Going to do a bit more research than just an internet search. If any corrections I'll come back to it. All the best! :)
Daffy Duck brought me here. I had to know more. hahahaha@@mikesnowden1
What a beautiful voice .... I'm hearing this for the first time ... this brings shivers up my spine...
There are other versions I really enjoy, but this.... this is art.
Appears to be one of THE most covered songs in America, ever. But I haven't found one cover that stands up to this.
A origem dessa música que virou um clássico
This is FABULOUS!!!
The singer is William Gillespie. He was uncredited in the movie. He also did Porgy and Bess song.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
nothing also in wikipedia
Johnny Mercer generally nails it and he outdid himself here.
Looney Tunes bought me here.
Exactly.
Bugs Bunny: 🎵"My mamma done told me, a buzzard is two-faced"... 🎵
Bizarre juxtaposition of sorrowful blacks and whites delighted by their "find".
@RuBeN729 Black people ARE American music, the foundation if nothing else. Jazz, Rock and Roll, and R&B would not have existed without them. White people created... country music. Nothing to brag about.
@arbygil NO WAY!!!!! awsome, great voice!
Same as the clip; "Blues in the Night."
Somehow, someone wrote that this is Johnny Mercer as the "artist." Er., No. Mercer was the lyricist.
LUCKY YOU!!!
@Mystic0157 Just about anything Johnny Mercer came up with (teaming with Harold Arlen here) was heavily covered.
Really? That is wonderful!
This version is the best I've heard so far. I can't seem to find it on a cd or online. Any ideas? Thanks.
The song was written for this film, (the film is titled "Blues in the Night) so this may be the only place with this singer to find it.
@@chbonnet I believe you are correct. In looking up the discography of the song, I believe this is the ONLY time you will hear William Gillespie sing this. FYI: I agree with @bhan99 this is the BEST version, period. Mr. Gillespie's voice & delivery have never been TOUCHED by any of the later covers, IMHO.
WOW!!!
Segregated or not, like us or don't, african american people letd a great print in the music in the whole world
William Gillespie was not credited so couldn’t really build on this appearance. He died t age 60, working in a funeral home.
I think this one is more bluesy, Sinatra's version has kept the 'torch song' element but taken out the blues - you could say that's the modern jazz approach. In some respects the 2 versions represent the swing era approach and the post-bop approach to such a ballad. For me, the best version is the Ella Mae Morse, Johnny Mercer, & Pied Pipers' version (accessible on UA-cam). Mercer's singing, especially, captures the soul of this song. Classy though he always is, Sinatra's just a little too slow for me.
+Vern Marshall When I first listened to the Sinatra version, I also thought it was too slow - but the more I listened, the more I came to appreciate how he captured the deep melancholy of the lyrics. Like a lot of great blues songs, it can be taken at different tempos and still sound good. But in Sinatra;s version, there is no swing at all. He sings a dark night of the soul and the loneliness is almost scary. There are no back up vocals at all. Nothing bouncy at all.
what's the name of the singer?Way better than the other versions of it.Ledisi does it pretty well too!
@nodrogceiwonys So they can meld their sonorous voices in a blues song.
what's the name of this movie?
Duh.
@bhan99 Sinatra did a killer version as well, slowing it wayyyyyyy downnnnnnn .....
Yeah - it is kind of like the old joke about every rock'n'roll song being a rewrite of 'Yankee Doodle.' But Americans didn't just import music; they synthesized it into multiple new forms.
Actually, without the Black Gospel church root, there would be no jazz, soul or rock and roll...
We can take it as far back as Africa and possibly farther.. Gospel music is rooted in African music which was a form of communication for slaves!
@DJMeowMixer
Black people used to be american music.Now most (95%) of them are doing crappy things,a shame for such a talented people...
@nodrogceiwonys They be segregated, whities in one cell, blackies in the other. That's the way it was done back in da olden times.
and the name of the movie is????
Yeah, I'm feeling that low feeling again. I'm still licking my wounds from being cast aside by a female friend.
@seriousbe american music is black music
@seriousbe At least we have Li'l B, The Based God.
Sinatra's version is more soulful, more melancholy, more lonely. He and Nelson Riddle were an incomparable team. Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote the song and they were brilliant.
Lovely, but too manicured. Arlen wrote it for a voice and a solo instrument with percussion. Ella Fitzgerald.
@@kathyphillips8823 The ding was written for the movie. Like any great blues song, it can be played in various ways and still sound great. The original lyrics by Johnny Mercer are clearly meant for a man to sing. A man in a jail cell.
@nodrogceiwonys Segregation, this was common in Amerika. Cells for whites, cells for blacks, along with everything else.
@nodrogceiwonys maybe couse back in the days they couldn't put whites with colored folks i guess (don't mind me i'm drunk lmao)
@DJMeowMixer And yet, without that Anglo-American country music root, there would be no jazz, no rock and roll, no R&B ...
You got it backwards bruh! But nice try...
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Surely you jest.