"Blue" | ||||
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Single by Bill Mack | ||||
B-side | "Faded Rose" | |||
Released | 1958 | |||
Format | 45 rpm | |||
Recorded | 1956 Nesman Recording Studios in Wichita Falls, Texas |
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Genre | Country | |||
Length | 2:28 | |||
Label | Starday | |||
Writer(s) | Bill Mack | |||
Bill Mack singles chronology | ||||
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"Blue" | ||||
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Single by Kenny Roberts | ||||
B-side | "Sioux City Sue" | |||
Released | 1966 | |||
Format | 45 rpm | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 2:12 | |||
Label | Starday | |||
Writer(s) | Bill Mack | |||
Producer(s) | Tommy Hill | |||
Kenny Roberts singles chronology | ||||
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"Blue" | ||||
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Single by LeAnn Rimes | ||||
from the album Blue | ||||
B-side | "The Light in Your Eyes" (U.S.) "How Do I Live" (UK), "Undeniable" (UK) |
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Released | June 4, 1996 | |||
Format | CD single, digital download, vinyl single | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 2:47 ("Blue") 2:34 ("Lady & Gentlemen") |
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Label | Curb | |||
Writer(s) | Bill Mack | |||
Producer(s) | Wilbur C. Rimes ("Blue") Darrell Brown, LeAnn Rimes ("Lady & Gentlemen") |
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LeAnn Rimes singles chronology | ||||
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"Blue" is a song released in 1958 by Bill Mack, an American songwriter-country artist and country radio disc jockey. It has since been covered by several artists, in particular by country singer LeAnn Rimes, whose 1996 version became a hit. The song won Mack the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Country Song, a 1996 Academy of Country Music Award for Song of the Year, a 1997 Country Music Association Awards nomination for Song of the Year, a 1997 Country Radio Music Awards nomination for Song of the Year, and is included on the CMT list of the top 100 country songs of all time. Rimes' rendition won the 1996 Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
"Blue" is a heartache ballad about a lonely man who is wondering why his lover can't be blue or lonely over him. However, he later realizes that words his lover had whispered were only lies:
Contrary to popular opinion, Mack has often denied that Patsy Cline was his inspiration for writing the song, stating "I didn't write it for Patsy. I never wrote one for anybody." In his autobiography Bill Mack's Memories from the Trenches of Broadcasting, Mack again debunks the publicity claim that he had written the song specifically for Cline, when in fact he did not have Cline in mind when he wrote it. According to his self-penned article for Truckers Connection, Mack reveals that his "most noteworthy inspirations [for creating compositions] have been a billboard and attempting to create note changes on a new guitar" in which he also states,
Inevitably, I would be approached with the question, "What inspired you to write the song?" I wrote "Blue" while picking my new guitar in my home in Wichita Falls, Texas. I was creating some note changes on the guitar when the song entered my mind. Although I wasn't watching the clock, the melody and lyrics came to me in a completed form within 15 minutes. My wife at the time said, "That's the best song I've ever heard! You need to record it as soon as you can!