Harold Arlen, music · Johnny Mercer, lyrics · Introduced in the 1941 film Blues in the Night, sung by William Gillespie
Blues in the Night
Blues in the Night is a 1941 blues song by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, written for a film. Its words recall a mother's warning, and a plain blues section gives way to a wandering one. Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Artie Shaw's first record from September 1941, then follows the song up the charts with Woody Herman, Jimmie Lunceford and Dinah Shore. It then moves to jazz players: Oscar Peterson's trio, Louis Armstrong's vocal, Sonny Clark's trio, and Art Pepper's clarinet with strings in 1980.
Louis Armstrong with the Oscar Peterson Quartet1957 · Vocal
Sonny Clark Trio1958 · Hard bop
1960s
1970s
1980sArt Pepper with strings1980 · Post-bop
Progress can't be saved in this browser.
Step 1 of 8 Now playing✓ Heard
Hear the first record
Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (vocal by Hot Lips Page) · 1941
Single, Victor 27609
Artie Shaw's orchestra made the first recording of the song on September 2, 1941, with Hot Lips Page singing. Victor issued it as number 27609 on October 3.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Hot Lips Page sings the song and plays trumpet, with Artie Shaw's orchestra behind him. The record runs about three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the as a plain blues in G, one per bar, slowly: , , G7, G7, C7, C7, G7, G7, , D7, G7 C7, G7.
Woody Herman and his orchestra recorded it on September 10, 1941, with Herman singing. Decca issued it as number 4030, and it reached number one on Billboard's best-selling records chart on February 14, 1942.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Woody Herman sings the song himself, with his orchestra behind him. The record runs a little over three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play only the roots of the as a slow low line: C, F, B♭, E♭, B♭, A, D, D♭ D. The full are , , , , B♭7, , , D7.
Hear a big band spread the song over two record sides
Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra · 1941
“Blues in the Night (Parts 1 and 2)”, Single, Decca 4125
Jimmie Lunceford's orchestra recorded the song in two parts on December 22, 1941, one for each side of a record. Decca 4125 came out in January 1942 and reached number four on Billboard's best-seller chart.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
The song fills both sides of the original 78 rpm record, and this track joins them into one piece of a little over five minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Follow the form as you listen: two 12-bar A , then the 8-bar B, then the 12-bar B. Tap the bars and mark where the starts (bar 25). If the arrangement adds extra bars, note where.
Dinah Shore recorded it in New York on January 12, 1942, and Bluebird issued it on January 23. It reached number four on Billboard's best-seller chart and sold a million copies.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Dinah Shore sings with a band behind her, so you can compare her voice with Hot Lips Page and Woody Herman earlier on the path. The record runs about three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last four of the in your left hand: , D7, , G7. Hum the song's ending over them.
Oscar Peterson's trio recorded it in Los Angeles on November 15, 1954, with Herb Ellis on guitar and Ray Brown on bass. Clef issued it in 1955 on Oscar Peterson Plays Harold Arlen.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Piano, guitar and bass carry the whole track, an instrumental that runs 3:50.
Try it on your instrument
Walk a bass line under the : four quarter notes per on the roots G, C, G, G, C, C, G, G, D, E♭ D, G C, G. The smaller version is one root note per bar.
Louis Armstrong with the Oscar Peterson Quartet · 1957 · Vocal
Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson
Louis Armstrong sang and played trumpet with Oscar Peterson's quartet in Chicago on October 14, 1957. Verve released the session as Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson in 1959.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Louis Armstrong sings and plays trumpet, with Oscar Peterson's piano, Herb Ellis's guitar, Ray Brown's bass and Louis Bellson's drums behind him. The track runs just over five minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the melody of the , then leave a short gap and fill it with a held note from the G blues scale (G, B♭, C, D♭, D, F). Soloing over the is the harder version; the smaller one is to hold just G.
Sonny Clark's trio recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on December 7, 1958. Blue Note did not release it until 1979, on a Japanese LP named after the song.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Sonny Clark plays piano with Paul Chambers on bass and Wesley Landers on drums. This is an instrumental, and it runs almost six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the at a slow tempo: , , , , B♭7, , , D7. Then play the ending of the form: , D7, A7 D♭7, C7, E♭7 D7, .
Art Pepper recorded it with a string orchestra arranged and conducted by Bill Holman at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley on September 3 and 4, 1980. Galaxy released it on Winter Moon in 1981.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Art Pepper plays clarinet on this track, with a string orchestra arranged by Bill Holman and a behind him. It runs seven minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole form once at the slowest tempo you can, one per bar. The ending of the form is , , , , D7, .
Arlen and Mercer write it for a 1941 film. Artie Shaw makes the first record that September, and Woody Herman's version reaches number one on Billboard's best-seller chart in February 1942.
1950s
Oscar Peterson's trio plays it for an album of Harold Arlen songs in 1954, and Louis Armstrong sings it with Peterson's quartet in 1957. Frank Sinatra and Sonny Clark's trio both record it in 1958.
1960s
Red Garland's trio records it for Prestige in 1960, though the album stays on the shelf until 1964. Ella Fitzgerald sings it with Billy May's orchestra on her Harold Arlen songbook, released in 1961.
1970s
Mel Tormé and Buddy Rich record it in 1978 for Together Again: For the First Time, an album cut straight to disc.
1980s
Art Pepper plays it on clarinet with a string orchestra arranged by Bill Holman in September 1980, for the album Winter Moon.
More great versions
6 more, from 1941 to 1978. Tap a cover to play it here.
1940sBenny Goodman Sextet1941
Cab Calloway1941
1950sFrank Sinatra1958 · Vocal
1960sElla Fitzgerald with Billy May1960 · Big band
Red Garland Trio1960
1970sMel Tormé and Buddy Rich1978
Benny Goodman Sextet (vocals by Peggy Lee and Lou McGarity)
1941
Single, OKeh 6553
Benny Goodman's sextet recorded it on December 24, 1941, with Peggy Lee and Lou McGarity singing. OKeh issued it as number 6553 in January 1942.
“Blues in the Night (My Mama Done Tol' Me)”, Single, OKeh 6422
Cab Calloway recorded it on September 10, 1941, with the Palmer Brothers singing along, and OKeh issued it as number 6422. It reached number eight on Billboard's best-seller chart in early 1942.
Red Garland's trio recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on July 15, 1960, and Prestige held it until Soul Burnin' came out in 1964.
Mel Tormé and Buddy Rich made this album together for the first time in 1978, recording it straight to disc on Gryphon. Blues in the Night runs more than eight minutes.
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
G majorusual key
44 barsA · A · B · B form
G major → E♭ major → G major → E♭ major → G majorkey centers
A12 bars
A12 bars
B8 bars
B12 bars
G
E♭
G
E♭
G
Each is a in G: , , G7, G7, C7, C7, G7, G7, , D7, G7 C7, G7. The , 25 to 32, leaves home with C7, , and E♭7, then returns with B♭7, , D7 and D7. The second B section starts the same way, then ends the tune with , D7, and a short coda of A7 D♭7, C7, E♭7 D7 and . These follow the iReal Pro chart, which marks a first and second ending and a D.C. al Coda; other lead sheets may lay out the 44 bars differently.