Blue Skies

Blue Skies

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In Recollections & Ruminations
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As we follow the working relationship between Robert Emmett Dolan and Irving Berlin, we move the next big project that they worked on, the movie Blue Skies (1946).  WWII was over, and color film was available; so we got to see Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in color, along with the beautiful Joan Caulfield.  Four songs were written for the movie: “Serenade to an Old-Fashioned Girl,” “You Keep Coming Back Like a Song,” “(Running Around in Circles) Getting Nowhere” and “A Couple of Song and Dance Men,” fashioned after “I’ll Capture Your Heart” from Holiday Inn. However, there are another 29 Berlin tunes that were borrowed for use in the movie.  For most of the numbers, you will have to buy the DVD and watch the entire film, because so little is available to us on YouTube.  Clearly, if you have never seen the movie on TCM or another channel, you owe it to yourself to watch the movie; the price of admission is more than made up by the songs written for the movie, plus new renditions of “I’ve Got My Captain Working for Me Now,” “I’ll See You in C-U-B-A,” “All by Myself,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “Blue Skies,” “Russian Lullaby,” “Everybody Step,” “How Deep Is the Ocean,” “Heat Wave,” “Any Bonds Today,” “This Is the Army, Mr. Jones” and “White Christmas.”

One of most beautiful ballads ever written by Berlin was “You Keep Coming Back Like a Song,” and we can provide it as part of an audio-only medley.

The beauty of this song is matched by the love song, “How Deep Is the Ocean,” which should be heard in the movie performance.  In previous renditions, Bing croons the song; in the movie, Bing sings the song from his broken heart.

We do have the audio from the movie where Bing and Billy De Wolfe sing “I’ve Got My Captain Working for Me Now.”

We also have the audio of the movie rendition of “I’ll See You in C-U-B-A” sung by Bing and Olga San Juan.

Next, we have a video compilation (not just from Blue Skies) of Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, with the audio portion of the movie’s comedy number, “A Couple of Song and Dance Men.”

We finish up with a brief clip of Bing and Joan, as he sings part of the song, “Blue Skies” to her.