Blue Moon (1934 song)

"Blue Moon" is a classic popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934, and has become a standard ballad. The song was a hit twice in 1949 with successful recordings in the US by Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé. In 1961, "Blue Moon" became an international number one hit for the doo-wop group The Marcels, on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and in the UK Singles chart. Over the years, "Blue Moon" has been covered by various artists including versions by Elvis Presley, The Mavericks and Rod Stewart.

Versions of this song are used liberally in the soundtrack of the 1981 horror-comedy film An American Werewolf in London.

Rodgers and Hart

Background

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart were contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in May 1933. They were soon commissioned to write the songs for Hollywood Party, a film that was to star many of the studio's top artists. Richard Rodgers later recalled, "One of our ideas was to include a scene in which Jean Harlow is shown as an innocent young girl saying—or rather singing—her prayers. How the sequence fitted into the movie I haven't the foggiest notion, but the purpose was to express Harlow's overwhelming ambition to become a movie star ('Oh Lord, if you're not busy up there,/I ask for help with a prayer/So please don't give me the air . . .')." The song was not even recorded and MGM Song #225 "Prayer (Oh Lord, make me a movie star)" dated June 14, 1933, was registered for copyright as an unpublished work on July 10, 1933.

Blue moon

A blue moon is an additional full moon that appears in a subdivision of a year: either the third of four full moons in a season, or a second full moon in a month of the common calendar.

The phrase has nothing to do with the actual color of the moon, although a literal "blue moon" (the moon appearing with a tinge of blue) may occur in certain atmospheric conditions: e.g., when there are volcanic eruptions or when exceptionally large fires leave particles in the atmosphere.

Definition

The term has traditionally referred to an "extra" moon, where a year which normally has 12 moons has 13 instead. The "blue moon" reference is applied to the third moon in a season with four moons, thus correcting the timing of the last month of a season that would have otherwise been expected too early. This happens every two to three years (seven times in the Metonic cycle of 19 years). The March 1946 issue of Sky & Telescope misinterpreted the traditional definition, which led to the modern colloquial misunderstanding that a blue moon is a second full moon in a single solar calendar month with no seasonal link.

Blue Moon (disambiguation)

A blue moon is an astronomical phenomenon.

Blue Moon may also refer to:

Literature

Music

Albums

Songs

Film and television

Blue Moon (Steve Holy song)

"Blue Moon" is a song written by Gary Leach and Mark Tinney, and recorded by American country music artist Steve Holy. It was released in April 2000 as the second single and title track from his debut album Blue Moon. The song peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and reached number 47 on the RPM Country Tracks chart in Canada.

Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price of Billboard gave the song a negative review, calling it a "lackluster ballad that fails to help Holy distinguish himself from the pack." Price wrote that Holy "has a pleasant voice, seasoned by performing on the competitive Texas music circuit, but somehow this record just doesn't take off."

Chart performance

Year-end charts

References