"Don't Blame Me": Song History, Commentary, Discography, Performances on Video

Welcome to

Cafe Songbook

Internet Home of the
Songs, Songwriters and Performers of
The Great American Songbook

Home \|\| Songs \|\| Songwriters \|\| Performers \|\| Articles and Blogs \|\| Glossary \|\| About Cafe Songbook \|\| Contact/Submit Comment

Search Tips: 1) Click "Find on This Page" button to activate page search box. 2) When searching for a name (e.g. a songwriter), enter last name only. 3) When searching for a song title on the catalog page, omit an initial "The" or "A". 4) more search tips.

Portions of this page have not yet been completed. Thank you for your patience.
Don't Blame Me
Written: 1933	Music by: Jimmy McHugh	Words by: Dorothy Fields	Written for: Clowns in Clover (show)
Page Menu
Main Stage \|\| Record/Video Cabinet \|\| Reading Room \|\| Posted Comments \|\| Credits

On the Main Stage at Cafe Songbook
This section is currently incomplete.
code (Please complete or pause one video before starting another.)	Artist performing "Don't Blame Me" with Personnel/at (year) More Performances of "Don't Blame Me" in the Cafe Songbook Record/Video Cabinet (Video credit)

Cafe Songbook Reading Room

"Don't Blame Me"

Critics Corner || Lyrics Lounge

About the Show Clowns in Clover / Origins of the Song

Other songs written for Clowns in Clover currently included in the Cafe Songbook Catalog of The Great American Songbook: none

Clowns in Clover was a 1932 Edgar Leslie produced revue that preceded a hoped for Broadway opening with runs in Detroit and Chicago, but bad reviews and a not very good show sealed its fate short of New York. It's only lasting legacy is "Don't Blame Me." Clowns in Clover did little to nothing to help the song along and after some failed attempts to plug it, McHugh and Fields managed to get it into their score for the movie Meet the Baron, but this Three Stooges / Jimmy Durante screwball comedy didn't do anything for it either. It wasn't until Ethel Waters came across the song and recorded it with the Dorsey brothers that it broke out. (See Shipton, pp. 114-115, and Gioia, pp. 88-90).

(This section is currently in preparation.)

Critics Corner

(This section is currently in preparation.)

Alyn Shipton,
I Feel a Song Coming On: The Life of Jimmy McHugh,
University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 2009

Ted Gioia
The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire
New York:
Oxford University Press, 2012.

Lyrics Lounge

(This section is currently in preparation.)

Click here to read Cafe Songbook lyrics policy.

Visitor Comments

Submit comments on songs, songwriters, performers, etc.
Feel free to suggest an addition or correction.
Please read our Comments Guidelines before making a submission.
(Posting of comments is subject to the guidelines.
Not all comments will be posted.)

To submit a comment, click here.

Posted Comments on "Don't Blame Me":

No Comments as yet posted

Credits

(this page)

Credits for Videomakers of custom videos used on this page:

No videos currently appear on this page.

Borrowed material (text): The sources of all quoted and paraphrased text are cited. Such content is used under the rules of fair use to further the educational objectives of CafeSongbook.com. CafeSongbook.com makes no claims to rights of any kind in this content or the sources from which it comes.

Borrowed material (images): Images of CD, DVD, book and similar product covers are used courtesy of either Amazon.com or iTunes/LinkShare with which CafeSongbook.com maintains an affiliate status. All such images are linked to the source from which they came (i.e. either iTunes/LinkShare or Amazon.com).

Any other images that appear on CafeSongbook.com pages are either in the public domain or appear through the specific permission of their owners. Such permission will be acknowledged in this space on the page where the image is used.

For further information on Cafe Songbook policies with regard to the above matters, see our "About Cafe Songbook" page (link at top and bottom of every page).

This section is currently incomplete.

The Cafe Songbook
Record/Video Cabinet:
Selected Recordings of

"Don't Blame Me"

(All Record/Video Cabinet entries below
include a music-video
of this page's featured song.
The year given is for when the studio
track was originally laid down
or when the live performance was given.)

Performer/Recording Index
(*indicates accompanying music-video)

Performer 1 (year)
Performer 2 (year)