"Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)" was the theme Bing Crosby selected for his radio show. It was recorded in November 1931 with Bennie Krueger and his Orchestra. The song was featured in a Mack Sennett movie short starring Bing Crosby. Crosby recorded the song on several occasions starting with the November 23, 1931 version with Bennie Kruger and his Orchestra. He next recorded it on July 20, 1940 with The Paradise Island Trio. On July 17, 1945 he recorded it with John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra and his final recording was on April 21, 1954 with Buddy Cole and his Trio for his Musical Autobiography set.
The song was originally "When the Gold of the Day Meets the Blue of the Night", but the title was changed before recording. Because Crosby contributed to the lyrics of the song, writers Roy Turk and Fred E. Ahlert included him in the songwriting credit. Although the song was popular and successful, Crosby did not take special pride in having written it, saying much later, "I really think I'd trade anything I've ever done if I could have written just one hit song." The Bing Crosby composition "At Your Command" was, however, number one for three weeks on the U.S. pop singles chart in 1931 and "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You", which he also co-wrote, is one of the most recorded pop and jazz standards of the 1930s...
Interestingly, Bing consistently sang 'WHEN the blue - -' for the later KMH radio shows.
ReplyDeleteHe also frequently used it in parodied form, once even singing 'Where the GREEN of the night'. But it was not his only signature tune, though far and away the one most linked with him. At various times he used 'Don’t Worry About Tomorrow', 'Got The Moon In My Pocket', 'Just An Echo In The Valley', 'Moonlight Becomes You' and 'Something In Common' in different radio shows, though some might argue that these were the signature tunes of the shows rather than of Bing himself, they were used as introduction and closing songs for the shows.