Classic Pop Icons

The Marcels’ superb doo-wop hit “Blue Moon” is Song of the Week on Classic Pop Icons. “Blue Moon” was released on single in February 1961, backed with “Goodbye To Love”. Five months later it was the title track of the group’s debut album.

The Marcels were a doo-wop quintet that formed in 1959 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The group’s name was the suggestion of bass singer Fred Johnson’s younger sister, Priscilla, who got the idea from the popular hairstyle of the day, the marcel wave.

The group came to the attention of Colpix Records A&R director, Stu Phillips, in February 1961, after he had listened to a demo tape they had made featuring various doo-wop/R&B standards. Among these was their vocal arrangement of the Cadillacs’ “Zoom”. Phillips was impressed enough to invite them to New York, where he recorded a number of tracks with them at the end of a session that had been set up for another artist. Towards the end of the makeshift session, Phillips asked the group to perform “Heart and Soul,” but none of them knew it well enough, so they instead opted for the pop standard “Blue Moon”. At Phillips’ suggestion, they incorporated the exciting bass vocal introduction that they had used on the demo tape on the song “Zoom”. And what a wise move that proved to be! This off-the-cuff performance became one of the most memorable pop songs of the decade.

The potential of “Blue Moon” was recognised very quickly by executives, not least because of the enthusiastic audience reaction that the song received when a promo disc was played on WINS by disc jockey Murray the K. The song was rush-released and would make a very swift climb up the charts.

“Blue Moon” was selected among the “Spotlight Winners of the Week” in Billboard’s February 20, 1961 issue:

The Marcels’ vibrant performance might at first seem out of step with the song title and lonely theme of the opening verse, but the song is in fact a celebration of changing romantic fortunes. The singer begins by reflecting on how he was “Without a dream in my heart/Without a love of my own” before “And then there suddenly appeared before me/The only one my arms would ever hold,” at which point he noticed that “The [blue] moon had turned to gold”. The colour blue is used cleverly to express both the initial melancholy and, in keeping with the phrase “once in a blue moon,” the unexpected nature of his change of fortunes.

The Marcels sang “Blue Moon” in the 1961 movie “Twist Around the Clock,” which also featured Dion and Chubby Checker. It has since featured in many movies, including “An American Werewolf in London”.

“Blue Moon” – The Marcels

The Marcels’ “Blue Moon” is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”.

Authorship

The words and music to “Blue Moon” were written by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers, respectively. This was the fourth set of lyrics that had been married to the melody. The song was originally titled “Prayer (Oh Lord, make me a movie star),” which was conceived for, but did not appear in, the 1933 Jean Harlow movie “Hollywood Party”. Lorenz Hart then wrote new lyrics for the song for the 1934 movie, “Manhatten Melodrama,” but this new version, titled “It’s Just That Kind of Play,” was cut from the movie. A third attempt, titled “The Bad in Every Man,” did make the movie. Finally, and also in 1934, Hart wrote the “Blue Moon” lyrics and a classic song was born.

Recording date/location

“Blue Moon” was recorded at RCA Studios in New York City on February 15, 1961.

Musicians

The Marcels were:

• Cornelius Harp (lead)
• Richard Knauss (baritone)
• Ron “Bingo” Mundy (first tenor)
• Gene J. Bricker (second tenor)
• Fred Johnson (bass).

Richard Knauss, Bingo Mundy, Gene Bricker, Fred Johnson and Cornelius Harp

The original quintet lasted just three sessions. Richard Knauss and Gene Bricker both left in August 1961 and were replaced by baritone Alan Johnson (Fred’s brother) and second tenor Walt Maddox. By the end of 1962, Harp and Mundy had also left, leaving Fred Johnson as the only original member.

We’d welcome any information on the anonymous session musicians that backed the Marcels on “Blue Moon”.

Chart performance

“Blue Moon” topped the Billboard Hot 100 on April 3, 1961.

The single also topped the UK singles chart.

Covers

“Blue Moon” – Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was an unknown 19-year-old singer when he tackled “Blue Moon” in one of his first sessions at Sun Studios in 1954. Despite his lack of experience, it is one of the most original and unusual performances of his career, beginning in subdued fashion and building to a pained falsetto. This has very little in common with the later Marcels cut.

Elvis’ lyrical edits make his mournful approach entirely appropriate, as without the bridge and final verse, there is no newfound love to celebrate.

Seven years later, it was Elvis Presley’s “Surrender” that the Marcels’ “Blue Moon” would replace at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100.

The Elvis recording of “Blue Moon” would inspire the Cowboy Junkies 1989 single “Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)”.

“Blue Moon” – Sam Cooke & Bumps Blackwell & His Orchestra

Sam Cooke released his version of “Blue Moon” on the B-side of his 1958 single “Love You Most of All” and then on the album “Hit Kit” the following year. This is a traditional approach to the song, but with some melodic alterations that put it very much in the style of Cooke’s other pop recordings from the era.

There will be a new Song of the Week on July 30.

The Marcels’ “Blue Moon” is available on various compilations, including “Blue Moon” and “The Best of the Marcels”.

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