"Blue Moon of Kentucky" is a

waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...

written in 1945 by bluegrass musician

Bill Monroe William Smith "Bill" Monroe (; September 13, 1911 – September 9, 1996) was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the " Father of Bluegrass". The genre take ...

and recorded by his band, the Blue Grass Boys. The song has since been recorded by many artists, including

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

and

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

. "Blue Moon of Kentucky" is the official bluegrass song of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. In 2002, Monroe's version was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

to be added to the

National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservati ...

. In 2003, CMT ranked "Blue Moon" number 11 in its list of 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music.

Bill Monroe version

Monroe's earliest-known performance of "Blue Moon of Kentucky" was on the Grand Ole Opry broadcast of August 25, 1945. He first recorded it for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

on September 16, 1946, at The Wrigley Building in Chicago, Illinois. That recording was released in early 1947. At the time, the Bluegrass Boys included vocalist and guitarist

Lester Flatt Lester Raymond Flatt (June 19, 1914 – May 11, 1979) was an American bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in the duo Flatt and Scruggs. Flatt's career spanned multiple decades, ...

and banjoist

Earl Scruggs Earl Eugene Scruggs (January 6, 1924 – March 28, 2012) was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-fin ...

, who later formed their own bluegrass band, the

Foggy Mountain Boys Flatt and Scruggs were an American bluegrass duo. Singer and guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs, both of whom had been members of Bill Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, from 1945 to 1948, formed the duo in 1948. Flatt and Scr ...

. Both Flatt and Scruggs performed on the recording, although Bill Monroe supplied the vocals on this song. The song, described as a "bluegrass waltz", had become a United States wide hit by 1947 and also became enormously popular with other bluegrass, country, and early

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western music ...

acts. The song was revered at the

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...

and others;

Carl Perkins Carl Lee Perkins (April 9, 1932 – January 19, 1998)#nytimesobit, Pareles. was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rockabilly great and pioneer of rock and roll, he began his recording career at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, Tennes ...

played an uptempo version of this song in his early live performances. After Presley's more rock-oriented version became popular, Monroe tweaked the "Blue Grass Boys’ arrangement of it, starting it slowly, playing one round, and then jumping into a 4/4 time signature, as Presley had done, turning it into a barn-burning bluegrass classic".Flashback: Bill Monroe’s ‘Blue Moon of Kentucky’ Inspires Elvis, Beatles
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Elvis Presley version

The search for another song to release along with "

That's All Right "That's All Right" is a song written and originally performed by blues singer Arthur Crudup and recorded in 1946. The song was rereleased in early March 1949 under the title "That's All Right, Mama", which was issued as RCA's first rhythm and bl ...

" at

Sun Records Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee in February 1952. Sun was the first label to record Elvis Presley, Charlie Rich, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny C ...

in July 1954 led to "Blue Moon of Kentucky" via

Bill Black William Patton Black Jr. (September 17, 1926 – October 21, 1965) was an American musician and bandleader who is noted as one of the pioneers of rock and roll. He played in Elvis Presley's early trio. Black later formed Bill Black's Combo. Ear ...

. Presley's version turned "it from a waltz to a bluesy rocker". According to

Scotty Moore Winfield Scott Moore III (December 27, 1931 – June 28, 2016) was an American guitarist who formed The Blue Moon Boys in 1954, Elvis Presley's backing band. He was studio and touring guitarist for Presley between 1954 and 1968. Rock critic D ...

: Presley, Moore, and Black, with the encouragement of Sam Phillips, transformed Monroe's slow waltz, in time, into an upbeat, blues-flavored tune in time. After an early rendition of the song, Sun Records owner

Sam Phillips Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003) was an American record producer. He was the founder of Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, where he produced recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, ...

exclaimed, "BOY, that's fine, that's fine. That's a POP song now!" As with all of the Presley records issued by Sun, the artists were listed and stylized as "ELVIS PRESLEY SCOTTY and BILL". The same night that

Dewey Phillips Dewey Phillips (May 13, 1926 – September 28, 1968) was one of rock and roll's pioneering American disc jockeys, along the lines of Cleveland's Alan Freed, before Freed came along. Early life Phillips was born in Crump, Tennessee, but spent ...

first played the flip side of this first release of Presley's music on WHBQ, "That's All Right", Sleepy Eye John at WHHM loosed "Blue Moon of Kentucky". Bob Neal of WMPS played the record, too. The pop jockeys, entranced by something new, began slipping "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in among the easy-listening pop of

Teresa Brewer Teresa Brewer (born Theresa Veronica Breuer; May 7, 1931 – October 17, 2007) was an American singer whose style incorporated pop, country, jazz, R&B, musicals, and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of th ...

Nat Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's music career began after he dropped out of school at the age of 15, and continued f ...

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth ...

, and others. Archived at http://www.scottymoore.net/ With Presley's version of Monroe's song consistently rated higher, both sides began to chart across the Southern United States. ''Billboard'' has the song listed only in Memphis, and as number six with "That's All Right" at number 7 on October 9 in the C&W Territorial Best Sellers. By October 23, "Blue Moon" was in the top 10 in Memphis, Nashville, and New Orleans, with "That's All Right" absent from the listings. Fellow Sun Records artist Charlie Feathers has often claimed that he came up with the arrangement of the song used by Presley. While others sources claimed that it was Presley who arranged the song. Monroe, at first, did not care for Presley's version until "powerful checks" (in sizeable amounts) began rolling in for Monroe's writing credit. The song was later used in a scene of the 2005 TV miniseries ''

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

''.

Personnel

* Elvis Presley – lead vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar * Scotty Moore – electric lead guitar * Bill Black – double bass

Other recordings

In 1954,

the Stanley Brothers The Stanley Brothers were an American bluegrass duo of singer-songwriters and musicians, made up of brothers Carter Stanley (August 27, 1925 – December 1, 1966) and Ralph Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016). Ralph and Carter perform ...

recorded a version of the song using Presley's arrangement with bluegrass instrumentation, neatly bridging the stylistic gap between Monroe and Presley's approaches. Bill Monroe subsequently re-recorded and performed the song using a mixture of the two styles, starting the song in its original time arrangement, then launching into an uptempo rendition.

Patsy Cline Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, Patrice, or Patricia). Among I ...

recorded "Blue Moon" in 1963. Cline's vocals were overdubbed over a different arrangement for the soundtrack to Cline's bio movie '' Sweet Dreams''. In 1968,

Al Kooper Al Kooper (born Alan Peter Kuperschmidt; February 5, 1944) is a retired American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, although he did not stay with the group long enough to share its popularity. ...

recorded a version for his debut solo album '' I Stand Alone''. In 1969,

Jerry Reed Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included " Guitar Man", " U.S. Male", "A Thi ...

recorded a version for his album ''Jerry Reed Explores Guitar Country''. In 1991,

recorded a version for ''

Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) ''Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)'' is a live unplugged performance by Paul McCartney, recorded and released in 1991. Following the vastness of his world tour recently captured on '' Tripping the Live Fantastic'', McCartney relished the oppor ...

'' which was a combination of both the Bill Monroe and Elvis Presley versions. In 2000,

John Fogerty John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty Thomas Richard Fogerty (November 9, 1941 – September 6, 1990) was an American mu ...

recorded a version for a

Ricky Skaggs Rickie Lee Skaggs (born July 18, 1954), known professionally as Ricky Skaggs, is an American neotraditional country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, ma ...

tribute album to

titled ''Big Mon: The songs of Bill Monroe''. In 2003, the psychobilly/rockabilly band

Zombie Ghost Train Zombie Ghost Train (sometimes seen as ZGT) were an Australian rock band located in Sydney, NSW, Australia. The band formed with Stu Arkoff (guitars and vocals), Azzy T (drums), and Captain Reckless (bass and backing vocals). In 2007, Azzy T lef ...

covered the song on their album ''Monster Formal Wear''.

was inspired by the song to move to Memphis, Tennessee where he enjoyed a more fruitful career.

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

did not release a version of the song, but a track does exist of it "performed in an impromptu jam by three-quarters of the Beatles".

References

External links

Bill Monroe original version sample @ cduniverse Click on Track Listing

Elvis version sample @ cduniverse

NPR report including various versions

Library of Congress essay
on its addition to the

.

by Bill Monroe-Blue Moon Of Kentucky Single in Apple Music {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Moon Of Kentucky 1947 songs 1954 singles United States National Recording Registry recordings Bluegrass songs Bill Monroe songs Elvis Presley songs The Kentucky Headhunters songs Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Songs written by Bill Monroe Columbia Records singles Sun Records singles RCA Victor singles Music of Kentucky

Songs about Kentucky Songs about the Moon