Free Jazz Standard Sheet Music Downloads

Lyricist Grant Clarke and composer Harry Akst (who also wrote "Dinah") created this song in 1929 for the groundbreaking film On with the Show—the first all-color, all-talking picture. Ethel Waters performed it in the film and scored a #1 hit, establishing the song as her signature tune and a landmark in the transition from blues to jazz vocal style.

Built on a relatively simple 32-bar structure, the song features a bluesy, plaintive melody anchored by the repeated questioning phrase "Am I blue?" The lyric captures the anguish of abandonment with directness and emotional power. Typically performed at a relaxed tempo, it invites expressive blues-inflected improvisation and has proven adaptable across a wide range of styles.

Ethel Waters' original 1929 recording, backed by the Dorsey Brothers (Tommy on trombone, Jimmy on clarinet), remains a historic document. The song gained renewed exposure in the 1944 film To Have and Have Not, performed by Lauren Bacall and Hoagy Carmichael. It has been covered by Billie Holiday, Julie London, Ray Charles, and many others.