The Birth of the Blues

Words & Music by B.G. DeSylva, Lew Brown & Ray Henderson
Recorded by Frank Sinatra, 1952


A7(V) G#7   G7    C   C/B        Dm7     G7
They heard the breeze    in the trees

 G7+      C   E7   F         
Singing weird melodies

         D7        G7                 C    G#7  G7
And they made that   the start of the blues.


A7(V) G#7 G7   C  Am           Dm7
And  from  a jail    came the wail

G7    C    E7       F
Of a down-hearted frail

          D7         G7     Dm7    G7     C    Fdim    C
And they played that    as part of the blues.


Bridge:

C       C/B     E7   Dm6       E7
From a whippoorwill, out on a hill,

Dm6        Bm7-5  E7   Bm7-5
They took a new note,

 E7                  A7  A7sus4       A7
Pushed it through a horn  til it was born

 Am7    D7        G7
Into a new note.


A7(V) G#7   G7   C      Am    Dm7    G7
 And  then they nursed it, rehearsed it,

G+   C  Bm7-5  E7   F      
And gave out  the news

          D7  Dm7   G7                   C    Am   G#7   G7
That the southland    gave birth to the blues.


Repeat Bridge:


(Repeat last verse)


Last  time:

 D7    Dm7  G7  G#7 - G7       Gdim          C    Bb7  G#7  C
 That the southland      gave birth to the blues.

The lyric and guitar chord transcriptions on this site are the work of The Guitarguy and are intended for private study, research, or educational purposes only. Individual transcriptions are inspired by and and based upon the recorded versions cited, but are not necessarily exact replications of those recorded versions.