Blue Moon of Kentucky
Encyclopedia
"Blue Moon of Kentucky" is a waltz
written in 1946 by bluegrass
musician Bill Monroe
and recorded by his band, The Blue Grass Boys. The song has since been recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley
.
"Blue Moon of Kentucky" is the official bluegrass song of Kentucky
. In 2002, Monroe's version was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress
to be added to the National Recording Registry
. In 2003, CMT
ranked "Blue Moon of Kentucky" #11 on its 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music.
on September 16. It was released in early 1947. At the time, the Bluegrass Boys included vocalist and guitarist Lester Flatt
and banjoist Earl Scruggs
, who would later form their own bluegrass band, the Foggy Mountain Boys
. Both Flatt and Scruggs performed on the recording, although Bill Monroe supplied the vocals on this song.
The song, described as a "bluegrass waltz", had become a nationwide hit by 1947 and also became enormously popular with other bluegrass, country, and early rockabilly
acts. Although the song was revered by the Grand Ole' Opry and others, Carl Perkins
played an uptempo version of this song in his early live performances.
In 1954, The Stanley Brothers
recorded a version of the song using Presley's 4/4 arrangement with bluegrass instrumentation, neatly bridging the stylistic gap between Monroe's and Presley's approaches. Bill Monroe subsequently rerecorded and performed the song using a mixture of the two styles, starting the song in its original 3/4
arrangement, then launching into an uptempo 4/4 rendition.
in July 1954 led to "Blue Moon of Kentucky" via Bill Black
. "We all of us knew we needed something," according to Scotty Moore
, and things seemed hopeless after a while. "Bill is the one who came up with "Blue Moon of Kentucky."...We're taking a little break and he starts beating on the bass and singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky," mocking Bill Monroe, singing the high falsetto voice. Elvis joins in with him, starts playing and singing along with him," as did Moore himself. Presley, Moore, and Black, with the encouragement of Sam Phillips, transformed Monroe's slow waltz (3/4 time) into an upbeat, blues-flavored tune in 4/4 time.
After an early rendition of the song, Sun Records owner Sam Phillips
exclaimed, "BOY, that's fine, that's fine. That's a POP song now!." Presley responded, "That sounds like Carl Perkins!" As with all of the Presley records issued by Sun, the artists were listed as "ELVIS PRESLEY SCOTTY and BILL".
The same night that Dewey Phillips first played the flip side of this first release of Presley's music on WHBQ ("That's All Right"), Sleepy Eye John at WHHM loosed "Blue Moon of Kentucky". Bob Neal of WMPS played the record too. The pop jockeys, entranced by something new, began slipping "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in among the more "easy listening" pop of Teresa Brewer, Nat Cole and Tony Bennett.
With Presley's version of Monroe's song consistently rated higher, both sides began to chart across the South. Billboard has the song listed only in Memphis, and as #6 with That's All Right at #7 on October 9 in the C&W Territorial Best Sellers. By October 23, "Blue Moon" was in the top 10 in Memphis, Nashville, and New Orleans, with "That's All Right" absent from the listings.
Fellow Sun Records artist Charlie Feathers
has often claimed that he came up with the arrangement of the song used by Presley.
The song was later used for the 2005 TV miniseries Elvis
in a scene.
, Elvis Presley
, Patsy Cline
, Ronnie Hawkins
, Rory Gallagher
, LeAnn Rimes
, Paul McCartney
, Boxcar Willie
, Ray Charles
, Jerry Reed
, Jimmy Martin
, and Raul Seixas
.
In 1995, the remaining Beatles - Paul McCartney
, George Harrison
, and Ringo Starr
- performed an impromptu 4/4 version of the song that was eventually released on the Bonus DVD of The Beatles Anthology
video release. McCartney had earlier performed and released the song in 1991 as part of his appearance on MTV Unplugged
.
On the late '80s/early '90s time travelling sci-fi show, Quantum Leap, Sam Beckett performed "Blue Moon of Kentucky" after Leaping in as Elvis Presley in the "Memphis Melody" episode. In the King of the Hill
episode "The Bluegrass Is Always Greener", first aired in 2002, Jeff Boomhauer performed the song, with Vince Gill
providing the singing voice.
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
written in 1946 by bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
musician Bill Monroe
Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...
and recorded by his band, The Blue Grass Boys. The song has since been recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
.
"Blue Moon of Kentucky" is the official bluegrass song of Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. In 2002, Monroe's version was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
to be added to the National Recording Registry
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording...
. In 2003, CMT
CMT
- Medicine :* California mastitis test* Certified Massage Therapist* Cervical motion tenderness, a sign of pelvic inflammatory disease* Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease* Chemically modified tetracyclines* Circus Movement Tachycardia...
ranked "Blue Moon of Kentucky" #11 on its 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music.
Bill Monroe
Bill Monroe wrote the song in 1946, recording it for Columbia RecordsColumbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
on September 16. It was released in early 1947. At the time, the Bluegrass Boys included vocalist and guitarist Lester Flatt
Lester Flatt
Lester Raymond Flatt was a bluegrass musician and guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his membership in the Bluegrass duo The Foggy Mountain Boys, also known as "Flatt and Scruggs," with banjo picker Earl Scruggs. Flatt's career spanned multiple decades; besides his work with Scruggs, he...
and banjoist Earl Scruggs
Earl Scruggs
Earl Eugene Scruggs is an American musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger banjo-picking style that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music...
, who would later form their own bluegrass band, the Foggy Mountain Boys
Foggy Mountain Boys
The Foggy Mountain Boys were an influential bluegrass band founded by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in 1948, shortly after leaving Bill Monroe’s band. They recorded and performed together up until 1969.-Biography:...
. Both Flatt and Scruggs performed on the recording, although Bill Monroe supplied the vocals on this song.
The song, described as a "bluegrass waltz", had become a nationwide hit by 1947 and also became enormously popular with other bluegrass, country, and early rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
acts. Although the song was revered by the Grand Ole' Opry and others, Carl Perkins
Carl Perkins
Carl Lee Perkins was an American rockabilly musician who recorded most notably at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, beginning during 1954...
played an uptempo version of this song in his early live performances.
In 1954, The Stanley Brothers
The Stanley Brothers
The Stanley Brothers were an American bluegrass duo made up of brothers Carter and Ralph Stanley.-Biography:Carter and Ralph Stanley hailed originally from Dickenson County, Virginia. The family soon moved to McClure, Virginia where their parents worked a small farm in the Clinch Mountains...
recorded a version of the song using Presley's 4/4 arrangement with bluegrass instrumentation, neatly bridging the stylistic gap between Monroe's and Presley's approaches. Bill Monroe subsequently rerecorded and performed the song using a mixture of the two styles, starting the song in its original 3/4
Triple metre
Triple metre is a musical metre characterized by a primary division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 or 9 in the upper figure of the time signature, with 3/4, 3/2, and 3/8 being the most common examples...
arrangement, then launching into an uptempo 4/4 rendition.
Elvis Presley
The search for another song to release along with "That's All Right" at Sun RecordsSun Records
Sun Records is a record label founded in Memphis, Tennessee, starting operations on March 27, 1952.Founded by Sam Phillips, Sun Records was known for giving notable musicians such as Elvis Presley , Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash...
in July 1954 led to "Blue Moon of Kentucky" via Bill Black
Bill Black
William Patton "Bill" Black, Jr. was an American musician who is noted as one of the pioneers of rockabilly music. Black was the bassist in Elvis Presley's early trio and the leader of Bill Black's Combo....
. "We all of us knew we needed something," according to Scotty Moore
Scotty Moore
Winfield Scott "Scotty" Moore III is an American guitarist. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis' Hollywood years...
, and things seemed hopeless after a while. "Bill is the one who came up with "Blue Moon of Kentucky."...We're taking a little break and he starts beating on the bass and singing "Blue Moon of Kentucky," mocking Bill Monroe, singing the high falsetto voice. Elvis joins in with him, starts playing and singing along with him," as did Moore himself. Presley, Moore, and Black, with the encouragement of Sam Phillips, transformed Monroe's slow waltz (3/4 time) into an upbeat, blues-flavored tune in 4/4 time.
After an early rendition of the song, Sun Records owner Sam Phillips
Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...
exclaimed, "BOY, that's fine, that's fine. That's a POP song now!." Presley responded, "That sounds like Carl Perkins!" As with all of the Presley records issued by Sun, the artists were listed as "ELVIS PRESLEY SCOTTY and BILL".
The same night that Dewey Phillips first played the flip side of this first release of Presley's music on WHBQ ("That's All Right"), Sleepy Eye John at WHHM loosed "Blue Moon of Kentucky". Bob Neal of WMPS played the record too. The pop jockeys, entranced by something new, began slipping "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in among the more "easy listening" pop of Teresa Brewer, Nat Cole and Tony Bennett.
With Presley's version of Monroe's song consistently rated higher, both sides began to chart across the South. Billboard has the song listed only in Memphis, and as #6 with That's All Right at #7 on October 9 in the C&W Territorial Best Sellers. By October 23, "Blue Moon" was in the top 10 in Memphis, Nashville, and New Orleans, with "That's All Right" absent from the listings.
Fellow Sun Records artist Charlie Feathers
Charlie Feathers
Charles Arthur "Charlie" Feathers was an influential American rockabilly and country music performer.-Biography:...
has often claimed that he came up with the arrangement of the song used by Presley.
The song was later used for the 2005 TV miniseries Elvis
Elvis (TV series)
Elvis is a 2005 CBS mini-series written by Patrick Sheane Duncan and directed by James Steven Sadwith. It chronicles the rise of American music icon Elvis Presley from his humble beginnings in Tupelo, Mississippi to his international superstardom....
in a scene.
Other recordings
Numerous artists have recorded the song, including John FogertyJohn Fogerty
John Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
, Ronnie Hawkins
Ronnie Hawkins
Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life...
, Rory Gallagher
Rory Gallagher
William Rory Gallagher, ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995, was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste...
, LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes
LeAnn Rimes is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Patsy Cline-intended single "Blue" when Rimes was only age 13, resulting in her...
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, Boxcar Willie
Boxcar Willie
Boxcar Willie, born as Lecil Travis Martin was an American country music singer, who sang in the "old-time hobo" music style, complete with dirty face, overalls, and a floppy hat...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed
Jerry Reed Hubbard , known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country music singer, innovative guitarist, songwriter, and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films...
, Jimmy Martin
Jimmy Martin
Jimmy Martin was an American bluegrass musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass".-Early years:Born James H. Martin in Sneedville, Tennessee. Jimmy Martin was born into the hard farming life of rural East Tennessee. He grew up near Sneedville, singing in church and with friends from surrounding...
, and Raul Seixas
Raul Seixas
Raul Santos Seixas June 28, 1945 Salvador Northeast Brazil – August 21, 1989),was a Brazilian rock composer, singer, songwriter and producer.He is sometimes called the "Father of Brazilian Rock" and "Maluco Beleza"....
.
In 1995, the remaining Beatles - Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
, and Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
- performed an impromptu 4/4 version of the song that was eventually released on the Bonus DVD of The Beatles Anthology
The Beatles Anthology
The Beatles Anthology is the name of a documentary series, a set of three double albums and a book focusing on the history of The Beatles. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all participated in the making and approval of the works, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the...
video release. McCartney had earlier performed and released the song in 1991 as part of his appearance on MTV Unplugged
Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)
- Personnel :*Paul McCartney: Acoustic guitar, drums, vocals.*Linda McCartney: Piano, Indian harmonium, percussion, vocals.*Hamish Stuart: Acoustic bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals.*Robbie McIntosh: Acoustic guitars, piano, dobro, vocals....
.
On the late '80s/early '90s time travelling sci-fi show, Quantum Leap, Sam Beckett performed "Blue Moon of Kentucky" after Leaping in as Elvis Presley in the "Memphis Melody" episode. In the King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
episode "The Bluegrass Is Always Greener", first aired in 2002, Jeff Boomhauer performed the song, with Vince Gill
Vince Gill
Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
providing the singing voice.