Song of the Day 2/29: Lana Del Rey, “Blue Skies”
Guest post by Nathan Arizona
What? Lana Del Rey in the news again? Go figure.
And not just because she got knocked down in Taylor Swift’s private box during a post-game Super Bowl celebration. Karma? For a time she was wearing a loser San Francisco 49ers shirt.
The new news is about what made her famous in the first place – music. She has just released a cover of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” that’s featured on the soundtrack for the series “The New Look” on AppleTV+.
It’s not quite the version your great-great-grandmother shimmied to. This one is moody, kind of dark, a little weird. Of course it is. Blue skies are usually cheerful but Lana reminds us that “blue” can also mean sad. As usual, she gets a lot of help from regular producer Jack Antonoff.
“Blue Skies” is one of Berlin’s most popular tunes, and there are a lot of versions to choose from. The producer of a 1926 Broadway show called “Betsy” got Berlin’s last-minute approval to use the new tune when songs by a couple of nobodies named Rodgers and Hart weren’t cutting it. “Blue Skies” got 24 ovations on opening night. Well, that’s what I heard. The show flopped anyway, but the story was all about Irving Berlin’s new song.
“Blue Skies” was covered by Bing Crosby, Bennie Goodman, Jo Stafford, Dinah Washington, Doris Day, Count Basie and, well, just about everybody. It was used in the first full-length movie with synchronized sound, “The Jazz Singer.” Al Jolson sang it in, uh, blackface while looking dreamily into his mother’s eyes.
Here’s Lana. There’s nothing wrong with your speaker. It just starts off that way for a few seconds.
Brent Spiner, better known as Data, sang it in the movie “Star Trek: Nemesis” during the wedding celebration for Riker and Troi. Data’s just a tad shaky on the first few notes before his circuits kick in.
Spiner was a good singer and has released a well-regarded album of standards called “Ol’ Yellow Eyes Is Back.” He also sang in the Stephen Sondheim musical “Sunday in the Park With George” before starting his TV career and in 1997 played John Adams in a revival of the musical “1776.”
Ella Fitzgerald also had a go at it. She’s not sad or weird, just great.
I took a peek at Al Jolson’s version to see where the song started out. Interestingly, while the later crooner versions are obviously less bouncy than Jolson’s, overall all the song is pretty well intact. Maybe it is the minor key that gives the original a bit of a modern feel?