MY BLACKBIRDS ARE BLUEBIRDS NOW

(Irving Caeser / Cliff Friend (m & l) )

Sung by Annette Hanshaw 1928
Also available on 
< Annette Hanshaw The Girl Next Door 1927 - 1932 > 
(album released 1994)

Also sung by:

National Cavaliers Quartet
Jeff Healey Band
McKinney's Cotton Pickers
Sunny Bottom Boys
Nate Gibson and the Gashouse Gang
Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians
Ruth Etting
Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra
Jimmy Dorsey
The Singapore Slingers

And many others...


The nights alright, the days alright
The worlds all right, and I'm alright
I'm gonna be so happy I know.

This mornin' I looked at the sky
And heard the backbirds say goodbye
And heard the bluebirds sayin' hello.

Listen, can't you hear them singin' above
They'd have learned that I've been lucky in love.

All day long, I sing a song
I sing a song because nothins' wrong
My blackbirds are bluebirds now.

Bad luck's gone on his way
Good luck had to come back to stay
My blackbirds are bluebirds now.

Told the little whipoorwhills
Told the pretty daffodils
Told the preacher on the hill
The wedding's Sunday, honeymoon's Monday.

Yes sirree, life's worthwhile
Look at me with a great big smile
My blackbirds are bluebirds now.

(bridge)

Used to be lonely, used to be blue
Walkin' around with nothin' to do
Watchin' and waitin' all the day through
For someone I could love.

Out of a clear sky, bright as the sun
There came a sunbeam, second to none
I looked and I knew, that that was the one
The one for me to love.

Everything turned out so good
And I wonder that I'm knockin' on wood.

I'm as happy as a lark
No more sittin' in the park
No more hidin' in the dark
His father, mother, sister and brother.

All said yes, we said yes
And yes it gives me happiness
My blackbirds are happy little bluebirds now.

That's all!


NOTES:

Over the years, this was such an extensively 
produced song that a number of lyric variations 
exist, too many to enumerate here.

(Catherine) Annette Hanshaw was an American-born 
blues and jazz singer from the 1920s and early 
1930s and was purportedly one of the first female 
jazz singers of that era.

She was known as 'The Personality Girl' by her 
followers and fit the 1920s period perfectly with 
her flapper style and sweet innocent-sounding voice. 
She often ended her songs (for instance this one) 
with the cute tag line "That's All".

Some consider the 1930s Hanshaw as a 'torch singer' 
along with the likes of Ruth Etting, Mildred Bailey, 
Jane Froman and Bebe Daniels. Strangely, she thought 
her abilities 'wanting' by her own standards and 
retired early to married life, after only 15 years 
in the business.


(Transcribed by David Story- March 2014)