Color of the Blues
"Color of the Blues" | ||||
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Single by George Jones | ||||
B-side | "Eskimo Pie" | |||
Released | January 15, 1958 | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 2:48 | |||
Label | Mercury-Starday | |||
Songwriter(s) | George Jones, Lawton Williams | |||
Producer(s) | Pappy Daily | |||
George Jones singles chronology | ||||
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"Color of the Blues" is a 1958 country song written by George Jones and Lawton Williams and released by Jones on January 15, 1958.
Background
By the time of the release of "Color of the Blues" in 1957, Jones had been releasing singles for three years and had scored four Top 10 hits: "Why Baby Why" (1955), "You Gotta Be My Baby" (1956), "Just One More" (1956), and "Don't Stop the Music" (1957). However, his three previous singles had failed to chart and, in the wake of Elvis Presley's explosion in popularity, he had even recorded a few half-hearted rockabilly sides with producer Pappy Daily. Jones was not discouraged, however, telling Ray Waddell of Billboard in a 2006 interview that he was just happy to have moved on from Starday Records: "When I went to Mercury I got my first halfway decent sounds. "Window [Up Above]" and "Color of the Blues" didn't sell that big, but they got me a lot of radio play."
Composition
"Color of the Blues" is considered one of Jones' greatest earlier works, and he often performed it live during the late 1950s. According to Rich Kienzle's liner notes of the 1994 Song retrospective The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country, Lawton Williams (who had composed Bobby Helms' 1957 honky-tonk smash "Fraulein") wrote the lyrics while Jones came up with the melody and title. Like many other honky-tonk tunes of the 1950s, Jones sings of self-pity over a failed relationship; his lover has sent him a letter in the mail written with blue ink on blue paper, leading him to declare that "blue must be the color of the blues." Like his earlier composition "Seasons of My Heart," the song contains vivid poetic imagery, with the color blue symbolizing his despair:
- There's a rainbow overhead
- With more blue than gold and red
- Blue must be the color angels choose
- A blue dress you proudly wore
- When you left to return no more
- Blue must be the color of the blues
The song reached #7 on the country singles chart. It is often featured on compilations of Jones early Starday and Mercury albums, including; 1961's Greatest Hits, 2004's Definitive Collection: 1955-1962, 50 Years of Hits, and 2005's 24 Greatest Hits. Jones thought so much of the song that he would recut it for both United Artists and Musicor in the 1960s. It would also be recorded by Red Sovine, Skeeter Davis, Loretta Lynn, Elvis Costello, Patty Loveless, and John Prine featuring Susan Tedeschi.
Chart performance
Chart (1958) | Peak position |
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U.S. Billboard Hot C&W Sides[1] | 7 |
Discography
References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 179.
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- "No Money in This Deal"
- "Play It Cool, Man"
- "You All Goodnight"
- "Why Baby Why"
- "What Am I Worth"
- "I'm Ragged But I'm Right"
- "Rock It"
- "You Gotta Be My Baby"
- "Just One More"
- "Don't Stop the Music"
- "Too Much Water"
- "Tall, Tall Trees"
- "Seasons of My Heart"
- "Too Much Water"
- "Treasure of Love"
- "White Lightning"
- "Who Shot Sam"
- "Big Harlan Taylor"
- "Accidentally on Purpose"
- "Out of Control"
- "The Window Up Above"
- "Family Bible"
- "Tender Years"
- "Aching, Breaking Heart"
- "She Thinks I Still Care"
- "Open Pit Mine"
- "A Girl I Used to Know"
- "Your Heart Turned Left (And I Was on the Right)"
- "I'll Share My World with You
- "The Race Is On"
- "Love Bug"
- "Take Me"
- "I'm a People"
- "Walk Through This World with Me"
- "I Can't Get There from Here"
- "If My Heart Had Windows"
- "Say It's Not You"
- "Small Time Laboring Man"
- "As Long as I Live"
- "Milwaukee, Here I Come" (with Brenda Carter)
- "When the Grass Grows Over Me"
- "I'll Share My World with You"
- "If Not for You"
- "She's Mine"
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- "Tell Me My Lying Eyes Are Wrong"
- "A Good Year for the Roses"
- "Sometimes You Just Can't Win"
- "Right Won't Touch a Hand"
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- "What My Woman Can't Do"
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- "Old King Kong"
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- "Still Doin' Time"
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- "Shine On (Shine All Your Sweet Love on Me)"
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- "We Didn't See a Thing" (Ray Charles with Chet Atkins and George Jones)
- "A Few Ole Country Boys" (Randy Travis featuring George Jones)
- "You Don't Seem to Miss Me" (Patty Loveless with George Jones)
- "A Country Boy Can Survive (Y2K version)" (Chad Brock featuring George Jones and Hank Williams, Jr.)
- "Country Boy" (Aaron Lewis featuring Charlie Daniels and George Jones)
- "Wrong Number"
- "Money to Burn"
- "Big Fool of the Year"
- "I Saw Me"
- "What's in Our Heart" (with Melba Montgomery)
- "My Tears Are Overdue"
- "I Just Don't Give a Damn"
- "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
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