However, his three previous singles had failed to chart and, in the wake of Elvis Presley's explosion in popularity, he had even recorded a few half-hearted rockabilly sides with producer Pappy Daily.
Jones was not discouraged, however, telling Ray Waddell of Billboard in a 2006 interview that he was just happy to have moved on from Starday Records: "When I went to Mercury I got my first halfway decent sounds.
"Color of the Blues" is considered one of Jones' greatest earlier works, and he often performed it live during the late 1950s.
According to Rich Kienzle's liner notes of the 1994 Song retrospective The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country, Lawton Williams (who had composed Bobby Helms' 1957 honky-tonk smash "Fraulein") wrote the lyrics while Jones came up with the melody and title.
It would also be recorded by Red Sovine, Skeeter Davis, Loretta Lynn, Elvis Costello, Patty Loveless, and John Prine featuring Susan Tedeschi.