“Am I Blue?” is a 1929 song composed by Harry Akst (music) and Grant Clarke (lyrics), and published by M. Witmark & Sons. It was featured in four films that year, most notably with Ethel Waters in the movie On with the Show. It has appeared in 42 movies, most recently Funny Lady, The Cotton Club and Downton Abbey: A New Era, and has become a standard covered by numerous artists. Annette Hanshaw recorded the song on May 31, 1929. As a work from 1929 with its copyright renewed it has entered the public domain as of January 1, 2025.
Eddie Cochran, an early performer of rock and roll music, also recorded his version of “Am I Blue” sometime between May and August 1957. It was released on the B-side of Liberty Records single 55087. The A-side was “Drive In Show” which rose to number 82 on the Billboard charts. American singer-actress Cher recorded and released “Am I Blue” in 1973. It was released as the first and only single from her album of standards, Bittersweet White Light. It missed the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Linda Ronstadt recorded the song for her album For Sentimental Reasons (1986).
In 1944, the song was performed by Hoagy Carmichael and Lauren Bacall in the Howard Hawks-directed film To Have and Have Not. The tune is played in a scene in the Warner Bros. cartoon Booby Hatched, when a duck is sitting on her eggs, her teeth chattering from the cold. In 1987, Charlie Robinson sang the song in the Season 4 episode “Baby Talk” of the sitcom Night Court.
The deposed Qing emperor Henry Puyi (played by John Lone) sings the song during his 1925–31 playboy days in the Japanese concession of Tianjin in The Last Emperor (1987) by Bernardo Bertolucci.Billie Holiday’s version of the song (Columbia 37586 US 1947) appeared in the 1989 film Slaves of New York and the 2009 film Public Enemies.
Diane Lane lip synced it in the 1984 film The Cotton Club; the song was actually sung by Lesley Miller. It was not released on the soundtrack of the movie. In 1985, Nell Carter sang the song on the fifth episode of the fifth season of her hit sitcom Gimme a Break!. The song briefly appears in the Freakazoid! episode “Virtual Freak”, being sung by the titular character. The song was performed by Batman (Kevin Conroy) in the Justice League Unlimited episode “This Little Piggy”, as part of a bargain with Circe to release Wonder Woman from a curse placed upon her.
