Irving Berlin, music and lyrics · Added to the Rodgers and Hart musical Betsy, 1926
Blue Skies
Irving Berlin wrote Blue Skies in 1926, a bright song that opens in a darker, minor-key mood. Musicians like its clear shape: a main tune that returns three times around a contrasting middle section. A 1946 film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire took its title, and Willie Nelson recorded it in 1977.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Benny Goodman's 1935 band, then follows the tune through small groups, a trio, Ella Fitzgerald's wordless singing and a long piano trio. It ends with Willie Nelson's 1977 vocal and a saxophone quartet from 1982.
Goodman's band recorded Fletcher Henderson's arrangement of Blue Skies for Victor in New York on 25 June 1935. Bunny Berigan plays first trumpet and the trumpet solo, and Victor issued the record as 25136.
B minor · Big-band arrangement
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Listen for
A rising introduction comes first, then the brass and the saxophones answer each other through the tune. A trumpet solo and a tenor saxophone solo follow.
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Play the four that open each slowly: , , , . The bass note steps down from A to F♯, and the record sits a little higher than this chart. Smaller version: play only those four bass notes.
Dizzy Gillespie's quintet recorded Blue Skies in Chicago on 18 July 1952, with Joe Carroll singing. Dee Gee issued it on a single with Pop's Confessin' on the other side.
Sung versions
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Listen for
The record lasts 2:19, the shortest on the path. Joe Carroll sings with the quintet.
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Play 5 to 8 of an : , , , . These four bars turn from the opening toward and back. Smaller version: play only the Cmaj7 and the C6.
Oscar Peterson recorded Blue Skies in Los Angeles in early December 1952, with Barney Kessel on guitar and Ray Brown on bass. Mercury and Clef issued it in 1953, on a single and on Oscar Peterson Plays Irving Berlin.
Piano trios
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Piano, guitar and bass play the whole record, so the tune comes through without any words.
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Play the melody of the first with the right hand, and one root per with the left: A, G♯, G, F♯, then C, A, D, G. Smaller version: play only the left-hand notes, one per bar.
Zoot Sims and Bob Brookmeyer recorded Blue Skies in New York on 31 January 1956, with Hank Jones on piano. Storyville issued it on Tonite's Music Today.
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Listen for
A tenor saxophone and a valve trombone lead the quintet, with piano, bass and drums behind them. At 4:53 it runs longer than the earlier records on this path.
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Play the eight of B from the chart: , Cmaj7, Fm6 Cmaj7, , then the same again, ending on . Smaller version: play only the move between Cmaj7 and Fm6.
Ella Fitzgerald recorded Blue Skies in Hollywood in March 1958, in the sessions for her Irving Berlin Song Book with Paul Weston's orchestra. It was left off that album and came out on Get Happy! in 1959.
Sung versions · Scat singing
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Listen for
Ella sings the tune with the orchestra, then improvises with sounds instead of words, which is called scat singing.
Try it on your instrument
Sing the root notes of the first four , A, G♯, G, F♯, on a single sound such as "doo", then try the next four bars. Making up a free scat line over takes more experience; the smaller version is to sing along with the record on one syllable.
Hampton Hawes recorded Blue Skies at the Contemporary studio in Los Angeles on 17 February 1964, the same day as the rest of The Green Leaves of Summer.
Piano trios
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Listen for
Piano, bass and drums play for 5:22, longer than any earlier record on the path.
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Play one of the chart straight through with a steady count of four, then play it again with the only. Smaller version: play the first eight , one chord per bar.
Willie Nelson recorded Blue Skies in December 1977 for Stardust, an album of standards produced by Booker T. Jones. Columbia released the album in April 1978 and the song as a single that July.
Sung versions
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Listen for
Willie Nelson sings the tune himself and plays guitar, and his voice carries the melody all the way through.
Try it on your instrument
Sing or hum the tune while you play the chart's once through, one chord per except where the chart shows two. Smaller version: play only the first eight bars.
Stan Getz recorded Blue Skies with a quartet in January 1982, but Concord did not release it until 1995, on an album named after the song.
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Listen for
Getz plays tenor saxophone over piano, bass and drums for 6:38, the longest record on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Soloing over the chart's changes takes more experience. The smaller version is to play the melody for one and then play it again, changing only the rhythm.
Irving Berlin adds it to the Rodgers and Hart show Betsy in 1926. According to Wikipedia, Belle Baker sings it on opening night and the audience asks for 24 encores.
1930s
Benny Goodman's band records Fletcher Henderson's arrangement for Victor in New York in June 1935, with Bunny Berigan on first and solo trumpet.
1940s
Art Tatum plays it alone at the piano for Capitol. According to JazzStandards.com, the solo dates from 1949.
1950s
Dizzy Gillespie's quintet records it with the singer Joe Carroll in 1952, and Oscar Peterson's trio with guitar follows that December. Ella Fitzgerald sings it with an orchestra in 1958.
1960s
Hampton Hawes records it with a trio in Los Angeles in February 1964, for the album The Green Leaves of Summer.
1970s
Willie Nelson records it in December 1977 for Stardust, produced by Booker T. Jones, and Columbia releases it as a single in July 1978.
1980s
Stan Getz records it with a quartet in January 1982, but Concord does not release the record until 1995.
1990s
Oscar Peterson and the violinist Itzhak Perlman record it for Side By Side in 1994, and Eva Cassidy's 1996 Blues Alley concert includes it.
More great versions
3 more, from 1949 to 1996. Tap a cover to play it here.
Art Tatum plays Blue Skies alone at the piano for Capitol. According to JazzStandards.com, the solo dates from 1949 and is on The Complete Capitol Recordings of Art Tatum.
Oscar Peterson and the violinist Itzhak Perlman recorded Blue Skies for the Telarc album Side By Side at Mastersound Studios in New York, on 11 to 13 April 1994.
Eva Cassidy sang Blue Skies at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C. on 3 January 1996. The take came out on Live at Blues Alley that year and again on Nightbird in 2015.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
C majorusual key
32 barsA · A · B · A form
A m → C → A m → C → A m → Ckey centers
A8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars · bridge
A8 bars
A m
C
A m
C
A m
C
The runs 32 in four sections of eight: A, A, B, A. Each A opens in with four bars of , , and , a bass line that steps down one note at a time. The next four bars turn to : , , then . The first A ends with , which leads back to the top, and the second A ends with two bars of C6. B stays in C major: Cmaj7, Cmaj7 twice, then G7 C6, and the same again, ending on Bm7♭5 E7♭9. The last A repeats the opening and ends with that same Bm7♭5 E7♭9. JazzStandards.com gives the original as /, so lead sheets often sit in a different key than this chart.