Don't Blame Me (Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh song)
"Don't Blame Me" is a popular song with music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. The song was part of the 1932 show Clowns in Clover and was published in 1933. Popular versions that year were recorded by: Ethel Waters (US No. 6), Guy Lombardo, and Charles Agnew.[1]
The song received two significant "rock era" remakes: a ballad version by the Everly Brothers in 1961 which reached No. 20 on Billboard,[3] and an up-tempo version by Frank Ifield which reached No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart on 15 February 1964,[4] as well as in New Zealand.[5] In the U.S., Ifield's version reached No. 128.[6]
Other recordings
Charles Agnew and his Hotel Stevens Orchestra (1933). The New Yorker magazine reviewed this recording as "richly played."[7]
Perry Como's earliest known recording of the song was broadcast Monday, May 3, 1943 from New York City as part of Columbia Presents Perry Como.[16] He recorded the song as part of a Chesterfield Supper Club program in 1945 or 1946 that was rebroadcast by the AFRS as AFRS Supper Club #283.[17]
Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1956[20] for use on his radio show. It was included in the box set The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954–56) issued by Mosaic in 2009.[21]
Johnnie Ray Johnnie Ray with The Buddy Cole Quartet, (Columbia Records CL-6199, 1952) Following "Whiskey & Gin" & the smash "Cry," his first two hit singles released on Okeh in 1951, "Don't Blame Me" was the first of eight sides of Johnnie Ray's debut album for Columbia in 1952 [22]
^ abcdefgGioia, Ted (2012). The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire. New York City: Oxford University Press. pp. 88–90. ISBN978-0-19-993739-4.
^The King Cole Trio Radio Transcriptions vol. 1 1938, Naxos Jazz Legends, 2000
^Nat King Cole & His Trio, Radio Sessions from The Early Years: 1938 - 1939, disc A, Rare Radio Transcriptions, JSP Records, 2009
^ abThe King Cole Trio: The MacGregor Years, 1941-1945, Music & Arts Project of America
^Nat King Cole & His Trio, Radio Sessions from The Early Years: 1944 - 1945, disc D, Rare Radio Transcriptions, JSP Records, 2009
^Nat King Cole, Just Call Him King, le Chant du Monde, 2013
^The Unforgettable Nat King Cole, His 55 finest 1943-1957, Retrospective, 2008
^instrumental, bonus track, Nat King Cole and His Trio, The Complete After Midnight Session, Essential Jazz Classics, 2007
^Perry Como, The Best of The War Years, Stardust Records, 2002
^Love Letters from Perry Como, Rare 1944-46 broadcasts featuring Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers, guest star Rose Marie and the orchestras of Lloyd Shaller, Benny Goodman and Andre Kostelanetz, Viper's Nest 1994
