Written by: Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon
Recorded: 5 March 1970
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Phil McDonald, Geoff Emerick
Released: 27 March 1970 (UK), 24 April 1970 (US)
Available on:
Sentimental Journey
Personnel
Ringo Starr: vocals
The George Martin Orchestra: instrumentation
‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ is the fourth song on Sentimental Journey, Ringo Starr’s debut solo album.
The music was written by Ray Henderson, with lyrics by Mort Dixon. The song was published in 1926 by Jerome H Remick.
It was first recorded by Sam Lanin’s Dance Orchestra in March 1926, with other versions in the same year by Nick Lucas, Gene Austin, Benny Krueger, and Leo Reisman. It was also sung by Peggy Lee in the 1955 film musical Pete Kelly’s Blues.
‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ was also recorded by Paul McCartney for his 2012 album Kisses On The Bottom.
In the studio
Starr’s version of ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ was recorded on 5 March 1970 at London’s Morgan Studios.
Maurice Gibb of The Bee Gees had arranged the song. He also conducted the 36-piece orchestra, after which Starr overdubbed his lead vocals. The day’s work was complete by 1pm.
Maurice came over one day, and I was playing him the tracks and asked if he would like to do one, because he’s the arranger for the Bee Gees, the others don’t really arrange much. Anyway, it just happened that, the night before, he had been to some pub where they had some traditional jazz band and so, if you listen to it, you can hear what he thought of the band. It’s got a plonkety-plonk banjo. The hard bit was trying to keep it to songs that mean something to me. You know, I’d say, ‘I’m going to do this,’ and you’d get people saying, ‘Why don’t you do ‘Button Up Your Over Coat’, and why don’t you do such and such, and I’d say, ‘Yes, it’s a lovely song. But for me, personally, it’s no memory lane.’
Lyrics
Pack up all my cares and woe
Here I go, singing low
Bye bye, blackbird
Where somebody waits for me
Sugar is sweet, so is she
Bye bye, blackbird
No one here can love and understand me
Oh what hard luck stories they all hand me
Make my bed and light the light, I’ll arrive late tonight
Blackbird, bye bye
Pack up all my cares and woe
Here I go, singing low
Bye bye, blackbird
Where somebody waits for me
Sugar is sweet, so is she
Bye bye, blackbird
I said no one here can love and understand me
Oh what hard luck stories they all hand me
So make my bed and light the light, I’ll arrive late tonight
Blackbird, bye bye
Make my bed and light my light
I’ll arrive late tonight
Blackbird
I said blackbird
I said blackbird
Oh blackbird, bye bye
