“Blue Moon” is a popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934 that has become a standard ballad. Hart wrote lyrics for the tune, as the title song for the 1934 film Manhattan Melodrama. The studio then asked for a nightclub number for the film. Rodgers still liked the melody, so Hart wrote another lyric: “The Bad in Every Man” (“Oh, Lord … /I could be good to a lover,/But then I always discover/The bad in ev’ry man”), which was sung by Shirely Ross. After the film was released by MGM, Jack Robbins — the head of the studio’s publishing company — decided that the tune was suited to commercial release but needed more romantic lyrics and a punchier title. Hart was initially reluctant to yet write another lyric but he was persuaded. Robbins licensed the final version of the song to Hollywood Hotel, a radio program that used it as the theme.
The song charted in the Variety Top Ten for 18 weeks, reaching No. 1 in January 1935. The song was also recorded by Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra for Decca Records in November 1934 and Connee Boswell for Brunswick Records in 1935. It subsequently was featured in at least seven MGM films, including the Marx Brothers’ At The Circus (1939).
Blue Moon”‘s first crossover recording torock and roll came from Elvis Presley in 1954, produced by Sam Phillips. His cover version of the song was included on his 1956 debut album Elvis Presley, issued on RCA Records. Presley’s remake of “Blue Moon” was coupled with “Just Because” as a single in August 1956. “Blue Moon” spent seventeen weeks on the Billboard Top 100, although it reached only No. 55.
The Marcels a doo-wop group, recorded the track for their album Blue Moon. In 1961, the Marcels had three songs left to record and needed one more. Producer Stu Phillips did not like any of the other songs except one that had the same chord changes as “Heart and Soul” and “Blue Moon”. He asked them if they knew either, and one knew “Blue Moon” and taught it to the others, though with the bridge or release (middle section – “I heard somebody whisper …”) wrong. The introduction to the song (“bomp-baba-bomp” and “dip-da-dip-da-dip”) was an excerpt of an original song that the group had in its act. The record reached number one on the Billboard Pop chart for three weeks and number one on the R&B chart. It also peaked at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart.
American country music group The Mavericks covered the song for the soundtrack of the 1995 film Apollo 13. Their version peaked at number 57 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada. It also charted on the RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, peaking at number 15. A music video was produced, directed by Todd Hallowell. British singer Rod Stewart recorded the song with Eric Clapton for Stewart’s 2004 album Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Volume III. Their version was released as a single in early 2005 and peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in the US.
