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"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 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. ==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and MGM Song #225 "Prayer (Oh Lord, make me a movie star)" dated June 14, 1933, was registered for copyright as an unpublished work on July 10, 1933.〔Brent, Bill. ('The Story of Blue Moon', ''Weekly Bugle'' ). Retrieved June 6, 2005.〕 Lorenz Hart wrote new lyrics for the tune to create a title song for the 1934 film ''Manhattan Melodrama'': "Act One:/You gulp your coffee and run;/Into the subway you crowd./Don’t breathe, it isn’t allowed".〔Kanfer, Stefan. 'Richard Rodgers: Enigma Variations', ''City Journal'', Autumn 2003.〕 The song, which was also titled "It's Just That Kind of Play", was cut from the film before release, and registered for copyright as an unpublished work on March 30, 1934. The studio then asked for a nightclub number for the film. Rodgers still liked the melody so Hart wrote a third lyric: "The Bad in Every Man" ("Oh, Lord . . . /I could be good to a lover,/But then I always discover/The bad in ev’ry man"〔), which was sung by Shirley Ross. The song, which was also released as sheet music, was not a hit.〔 After the film was released by MGM, Jack Robbins—the head of the studio's publishing company〔Martini, Alessandro. ('Song: Blue Moon', ''LorenzHart.org'' ). Retrieved June 6, 2005.〕—decided that the tune was suited to commercial release but needed more romantic lyrics and a punchier title. Hart was initially reluctant to write yet another lyric but he was persuaded.〔 The result was "Blue moon/you saw me standing alone/without a dream in my heart/without a love of my own". There is an introductory verse (a common technique employed by songwriters of the 1920s and 1930s) that comes before the first refrain of the song. Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart used it in their 2004 version of the song (Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Volume III). The last line of this extra verse is "Life was a bitter cup for the saddest of all men."〔 Rod Stewart, Stardust: The Great American Songbook, Volume III, CD, J-Records, 2004. Oddly, the introduction lyrics are not listed on the CD's lyric sheet, but Stewart does sing them in the song)〕 Robbins licensed the song to ''Hollywood Hotel'', a radio program that used it as the theme. On January 15, 1935, Connee Boswell recorded it for Brunswick Records. It subsequently was featured in at least seven more MGM films including the Marx Brothers' ''At the Circus'' and ''Viva Las Vegas''.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Blue Moon (1934 song)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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