“BLUES IN THE NIGHT” (1941)

Many jazz standards originally were written for a motion picture, and “Blues in the Night” is one of those songs; it debuted in 1941 in a film noir musical of the same name, Blues in the Night. The film chronicled the adventures of a struggling jazz quintet that criss-crossed the country riding the rails in boxcars and looking for its first big break. Warner Brothers assigned Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer to create the soundtrack for the film. At one point in the film the band members ended up in jail and Arlen and Mercer were told to compose a blues song that would be sung in a jail cell. For two days Arlen analyzed recordings of blues songs and composed a melody, to which Mercer quickly devised lyrics that covered four pages. This was Mercer’s usual way of writing lyrics; the melody would be written first and he would add the words. Arlen thought that the lyrics were very strong beginning with the second stanza, but that the first stanza was weak. Although he rarely offered any suggestions to Mercer for changes in his lyrics, he did recommend that a line that appeared later in the song, “My mama done tol’ me…”, be moved to the beginning. Mercer made the change and the song “Blues in the Night” was born. Mercer had a life-long fascination with trains and his second stanza speaks eloquently to the romance and drama that he associated with train travel.
It was immediately acknowledged that Arlen and Mercer had written a great song, and the film, which originally had been titled Hot Nocturne, was retitled Blues in the Night before it opened in theaters. William Gillespie, a fine baritone, sang it in the film, but was not listed in the credits. He also performed the role of Porgy in the George Gershwin biography Rhapsody in Blue and sang on other film soundtracks in the 1940s, for which he also did not receive credit.
The film opened to mixed reviews. To quote the New York Times movie review in December 1941, “Here tunesmiths Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, with assists from the Jimmy Lunceford and Will Osborne Bands and a quintet composed of the film’s leading players, have produced a melodious sound track. And, so far as this corner is concerned, that’s just about all the film has to offer.” However, the “melodious soundtrack” was an immediate hit, and the song “Blues in the Night” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It lost to “The Last Time I Saw Paris”. Woody Herman and his Orchestra recorded it on the Decca label and it reached the Billboard magazine charts by January 2, 1942, where it remained for 11 weeks and peaked at the #1 spot.
Time has dealt more kindly with the film than did the original reviewers. Current reviewers have declared it to be well worth seeing, describing it as a fascinating melodrama that mixes soap opera with music enhanced by sharp dialogue and moody black and white cinematography by the great Ernest Haller (an Oscar winner for Gone with the Wind). It was released on DVD on July 22, 2008.