Blues in the Night

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.

[8]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.

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".

[10] Observers expected that either "Blues in the Night" or "Chattanooga Choo Choo" would win, so that when "The Last Time I Saw Paris" actually won, neither its composer, Jerome Kern, nor lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II, was present at the ceremony.

"[12] Listed below are known versions of "Blues In the Night" that have made Billboard magazine's charts in the United States since 1941.

[13][15] Dinah Shore's version[7] was released by Bluebird Records as catalog number 11436[6][17] on January 23, 1942.

[18] Jimmie Lunceford's two-sided platter was recorded on December 22, 1941, and released on Decca 4125 in January.

[15] The Benny Goodman Sextet, with Peggy Lee on vocals, recorded "Blues in the Night" on December 24, 1941, released on Okeh 6553 in January 1942.

Her previously unreleased 1942 version with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra[21] was included in the 1966 Reader's Digest box set The Glenn Miller Years.

[22] On October 15, 1943, she recorded it with Johnny Mercer, the Pied Pipers, and Paul Weston's Orchestra, in a version released as a single (catalog number 10001[23]) and on an album (Songs by Johnny Mercer, catalog number CD1) by Capitol Records.