Dinah Washington—”Am I Blue?” (1954)

“Am I Blue” is one of the great American songbook classics which has been recorded by dozens of jazz musicians and vocalists. New Yorker Harry Akst (1894-1963), of "Dinah" fame, composed the melody in early 1929. On June 17, 1953, Dinah Washington recorded her rendition of this song for her EmArcy album After Hours With Miss “D”.

Dinah Washington was accompanied on this recording date in Chicago, Illinois, by tenor saxophonist Paul Quinichette, organist Jackie Davis, pianist Clarence “Sleepy” Anderson, double bass player Thomas “Keter” Betts, and drummer Ed Thigpen.

The words for this song were written by Ohio-born tin-pan alley lyricist Grant Clarke (1891-1931) for the 1929 Warner Bros production “On With The Show,” starring Ethel Waters. In August of that year newspapers across the U.S. reported that “Am I Blue” was “one of the catchiest song numbers in the production.” The “prime favorite with the younger set in New York” was already the “hit of the season” and that it was “destined to prove popular with audiences everywhere.”

Clarke was a very successful lyricists, who had written hundreds of swell songs in the span of his short life. Already on January 2, 1918, The New York Clipper wrote that 26-year old Grant Clarke “in the past four years has written more hot songs than any other lyric writer.”

Unfortunately, two days after his 40th birthday, his life came to an abrupt end. Columnist Walter Winchell wrote about his sudden death: “He went to see a fellow he had befriended, who just came out of jail. The fellow gave him a drink of hooch and Grant toppled over cold.” And so ended Grant Clarke’s stunning contribution of fine lyrics.