DESCRIPTION:
"Blues in the Night" is a popular song which has become a pop standard and is generally considered to be part of the Great American Songbook. The music was written by Harold Arlen, the lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for a 1941 film begun with the working title Hot Nocturne, but finally released as Blues in the Night. The song is sung in the film by William Gillespie.

Ella's accompanied by Frank Beach, Don Fagerquist, Conrad Gozzo, Joseph Triscari (tp), Milton Bernhart, Edward Kusby, Richard Noel (tb), George Roberts (btb), Benny Carter (as), Plas Johnson (ts), Chuck Gentry (bs), Justin Gordon, Wilbur Schwartz (ww), Lou Levy (p), Herb Ellis (g), Wilfred Middlebrooks, Joe Mondragon (b), Alvin Stoller (d), Billy May (cnd, arr). Recorded in Radio Records, Hollywood on January 14, 1961. (Verve Records)

Arlen and Mercer wrote the entire score for the 1941 film Blues in the Night. One requirement was for a blues song to be sung in a jail cell. As usual with Mercer, the composer wrote the music first, then Mercer wrote the words. Arlen said, "The whole thing just poured out. And I knew in my guts, without even thinking what Johnny would write for a lyric, that this was strong, strong, strong! When Mercer wrote "Blues in the Night", I went over his lyric and I started to hum it over his desk. It sounded marvelous once I got to the second stanza but that first twelve was weak tea. On the third or fourth page of his work sheets I saw some lines—one of them was "My momma done tol' me, when I was in knee pants." I said, "Why don't you try that?" It was one of the very few times I've ever suggested anything like that to John." When they finished writing the song, Mercer called a friend, singer Margaret Whiting, and asked if they could come over and play it for her. She suggested they come later because she had dinner guests—Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Mel Tormé, and Martha Raye. Instead, Arlen and Mercer went right over. Margaret Whiting remembered what happened then... "They came in the back door, sat down at the piano and played the score of "Blues in the Night". I remember forever the reaction. Mel got up and said, "I can't believe it." Martha couldn't say a word. Mickey Rooney said, "That's the greatest thing I've ever heard." Judy Garland said, "Play it again." We had them play it seven times. Judy and I ran to the piano to see who was going to learn it first. It was a lovely night."

The song was frequently sampled by composer Carl Stalling in his musical scores for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for Warner Bros. studios in the 1940s and '50s. The then-recent hit song is sung incessantly by Daffy Duck in the ironically-titled 1942 cartoon My Favorite Duck, in which Porky Pig is tormented by the duck while on a camping trip. Porky's preferred number in that cartoon is "On Moonlight Bay". At one point, Porky unconsciously starts to sing "My Mama Done Tol' Me," then stops, looks into the camera with a "Harumph!" and returns to "Moonlight Bay."

Additionally, the musical riff "my mama done tol' me" is used to identify a black duck from 'South' Germany in the 1942 Looney Tunes cartoon The Ducktators, and the song is featured prominently (with revised lyrics) in the 1943 Merrie Melody cartoon Fifth Column Mouse as well as in Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs. In the 1942 cartoon, Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid, Bugs Bunny half-mutters the song, changing the lyrics to, "My mamma done told me, a buzzard is two face..."

My mama done tol' me when I was in pigtails
My mama done tol' me, "Hon
A man's gonna sweet talk and give ya the big eye
But when the sweet talkin's done

A man's a two-face
A worrisome thing who'll leave ya to sing
The blues in the night"

Now the rain's a-fallin'
Hear the train a callin', whooee
My mama done tol' me
Hear That lonesome whistle
Blowin' 'cross the trestle, whooee!

My mama done tol' me, a-whooee-ah-whooee
Ol' clickety-clack's a-echoin'
Back th' blues in the night
The evenin' breeze'll start the trees to cryin'
And the moon'll hide it's light
When you get the blues in the night

Take my word, the mockingbird'll sing
The saddest kind of song
He knows things are wrong
And he's right

From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe
Wherever the four winds blow
I been in some big towns and heard me some big talk
But there is one thing I know

A man is a two-face
A worrisome thing who'll leave you to sing
The blues in the night

The evenin' breeze'll start the trees to cryin'
And the moon'll hide it's light
When you get the blues
Blues in the night

Take my word, the mockingbird'll sing
The saddest kind of song
He knows things are wrong
And he's right

From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe
Wherever the four winds, four winds blow
I been in some big towns and heard me some big talk
But there is one thing I know

A man's a two-face
A worrisome thing who'll leave you to sing
The blues in the night
Yes, babe, lonely, lonely blues in the night