<P> "Blue Moon" is a classic popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934, and has become a standard ballad . It may be the first instance of the familiar "50s progression" in a popular song . The song was a hit twice in 1949 with successful recordings in the US by Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé . In 1961, "Blue Moon" became an international number one hit for the doo - wop group The Marcels, on the Billboard 100 chart and in the UK Singles chart . Over the years, "Blue Moon" has been covered by various artists including versions by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley, The Platters, The Mavericks, Dean Martin, The Supremes, Bob Dylan and Rod Stewart . Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album On the Happy Side (1962). It is also the anthem of English Football League club Crewe Alexandra and English Premier League football club Manchester City, who have both adapted the song slightly . </P> <P> In September 2018, documentary producer Liz Roman Gallese wrote that "Blue Moon" was composed in January 1931 by her father, Edward W. Roman (1914 - 1992), at the time the 17 - year - old son of Polish immigrants living in Troy, New York . Gallese wrote in a memoir Blue Moon - In Search of The Song My Father Wrote, that her musician father had sent the words and music to song brokers Mahoney and Associates, but the brokers stopped communicating after a while, and then the song was published as if it had been composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart . Roman sued for redress in October 1936 . </P> <P> Rodgers and Hart were contracted to Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer in May 1933 . They were soon commissioned to write the songs for Hollywood Party, a film that was to star many of the studio's top artists . Rodgers recalled, "One of our ideas was to include a scene in which Jean Harlow is shown as an innocent young girl saying--or rather singing--her prayers . How the sequence fitted into the movie I haven't the foggiest notion, but the purpose was to express Harlow's overwhelming ambition to become a movie star (' Oh Lord, if you're not busy up there, / I ask for help with a prayer / So please don't give me the air ...')." The song was not recorded (nor was the movie released) and MGM Song No. 225 "Prayer (Oh Lord, make me a movie star)" dated June 14, 1933, was registered for copyright as an unpublished work on July 10, 1933 . </P> <P> Hart wrote new lyrics for the tune to create a title song for the 1934 film Manhattan Melodrama: "Act One: / You gulp your coffee and run; / Into the subway you crowd. / Don't breathe, it isn't allowed". The song, which was also titled "It's Just That Kind of Play", was cut from the film before release, and registered for copyright as an unpublished work on March 30, 1934 . The studio then asked for a nightclub number for the film . Rodgers still liked the melody so Hart wrote a third lyric: "The Bad in Every Man" ("Oh, Lord.../ I could be good to a lover, / But then I always discover / The bad in ev'ry man"), which was sung by Shirley Ross . The song, which was also released as sheet music, was not a hit . </P>

Who was the original singer of blue moon