Austin was born as Lemeul Eugene Lucas in Gainesville, Texas (north of Dallas), to Nova Lucas (died 1943) and the former Serena Belle Harrell (died 1956). He took the name "Gene Austin" from his stepfather, Jim Austin, a blacksmith. Austin grew up in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, located east of Shreveport. There he learned to play piano and guitar. He ran away from home at fifteen and attended a vaudeville act in Houston, where the audience was allowed to come to the stage and sing. On a dare from his friends, Austin took the stage and sang for the first time since singing as a Southern Baptist choir boy. The audience response was overwhelming, and the vaudeville company immediately offered him a billed spot on their ticket.
Austin joined the U.S. Army at the age of 17 in hopes of being dispatched to Europe to fight in World War I. He was first stationed in New Orleans, where he played the piano at night in the city's notorious vice district. His familiarity with horses from helping his stepfather in his blacksmithing business also prompted the Army to assign Austin to the cavalry and send him to Mexico with General John Pershing's Pancho Villa expedition, for which he was awarded the Mexican Service Medal. Thereafter, he served in France in the Great War.
On returning to the United States in 1919, Austin settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he intended to study dentistry. Soon, however, he was playing piano and singing in local taverns. He started writing songs and formed a vaudeville act with Roy Bergere, with whom he wrote "How Come You Do Me Like You Do." The act ended when Bergere married. Austin worked briefly in a club owned by Lou Clayton, who later was a part of the famous vaudeville team Clayton, Jackson and Durante. RCA Victor bought his popular song "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street." In the next decade with RCA, Austin sold over 80 million records -- a total unmatched by a single artist for 40 years. Best sellers included "The Lonesome Road," "Riding Around in the Rain," and "Ramona."
Arriving with the advent of electrical recording technologies (earlier, acoustical technologies had been used) Austin soon gave birth to the "crooner" form (a clear light tenor) of singing of the 20's and 30's, taking over from the more sentimental style of tenor vocals popularized by such singers as Henry Burr and Billy Murray. Such later crooners as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Russ Columbo all credited Austin with creating the musical genre that began their careers. Gene Austin became enormously popular in the late 1920s. His recording of "My Blue Heaven" sold over 12 million records and until Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" replaced it as the largest selling record of all time.
Offered to work in Hollywood at the height of his career as the "Voice of the Southland", Austin appeared in three films, "Belle of the Nineties" (1934), "Klondike Annie" (1936) and "My Little Chickadee" (1940), at the request of his personal friend, Mae West.
Gene Austin married his first wife, Kathryn Arnold, a dancer, in 1924 and divorced her in 1929. They had a child, Ann, born in 1928. Austin married his second wife, Agnes Antelline, in 1933, and their daughter Charlotte was born that same year. He and Agnes divorced in 1940. Austin then married actress Doris Sherrell in 1940, and divorced her in 1946. He married wife number four, LouCeil Hudson, a singer, in 1949, and the marriage lasted until 1966. Austin married Gigi Theodorea in 1967; this was his fifth and final marriage.
In 1956, CBS made a television drama about Austin's life.
In 1962, Austin campaigned unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor of Nevada. He polled only 5,017 votes (10.21 percent) to his opponent, Grant Sawyer, who received 40,168 ballots (81.4 percent) Sawyer then won the governorship by a nearly 2-1 margin over weak Republican opposition in the fall campaign.
Austin had retired to Palm Springs, California, in the late 1950s and had been active in civic boards there until 1970. Income from his record sales allowed him to live comfortably the rest of his life. He died in Palm Springs of lung cancer and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
In 1978, Gene Austin was posthumously awarded a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for his 1928 recording of Bye, Bye, Blackbird, which has long been considered recorded music's definitive rendition of that song.
In 2005, Gene Austin was nominated and admitted to the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Bye Bye Blackbird
Gene Austin Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
right outside of my door.
Blackbird, blackbird--got to be on your way
where there's sunshine in store.
All through the winter you just hang around.
Now you should be going homeward bound.
Blackbird, blackbird, gotta be on your way
Gonna pack up all my care and woe.
Here I go, singing low.
Bye, bye, blackbird.
Where somebody waits for me,
sugar's sweet, so is he.
Bye, bye, blackbird.
No one here to love and understand me,
Oh, what hard luck stories they all hand me.
Gonna pack it up and and light the light,
I'll arrive late tonight.
Blackbird, bye, bye.
The lyrics of Gene Austin's "Bye Bye Blackbird" are a farewell to a pesky bird - the blackbird - which has been singing the blues all day outside of his door. The song suggests that the blackbird, having moped around all winter long in the cold, dreary weather, should now be on its way back to sunnier places. The song presents the idea of the blackbird's song as one of lamentation, expressing misery, wariness or heartache.
The song's protagonist uses the blackbird as a metaphor for his own situation, packing up his "care and woe" and singing low as he too is leaving. The lyrics, then, suggest a desire to escape from hardship and an optimistic, romantic view of life. The final lines of the song indicate the singer's belief that he is leaving to join someone he loves, which suggests a brighter future for him. The song is ultimately an upbeat celebration of the promise of a new start, represented by the idea of flying away to a new home.
Line by Line Meaning
Blackbird, blackbird singing the blues all day
The blackbird is singing sad songs outside my door all day long.
right outside of my door.
The blackbird is singing very close to my house.
Blackbird, blackbird--got to be on your way
It's time for the blackbird to leave and find a place with more happiness and light.
where there's sunshine in store.
The blackbird needs to find a place where things are bright and happy.
All through the winter you just hang around.
The blackbird has been around throughout the cold, lifeless winter.
Now you should be going homeward bound.
It's time for the blackbird to fly back home where it belongs.
Blackbird, blackbird, gotta be on your way
The blackbird needs to leave.
where there's sunshine galore.
The blackbird needs to find a place where everything is bright and happy with sunshine.
Gonna pack up all my care and woe.
I'm leaving behind all of my worries and sadness.
Here I go, singing low.
I'm leaving, but I'm still feeling sad.
Bye, bye, blackbird.
I'm saying goodbye to the blackbird, and to my sadness.
Where somebody waits for me,
I'm going to a place where somebody is waiting for me.
sugar's sweet, so is he.
The person who is waiting for me is sweet and kind.
Bye, bye, blackbird.
I'm leaving behind all of my sadness and saying goodbye to the blackbird.
No one here to love and understand me,
Nobody here understands and loves me.
Oh, what hard luck stories they all hand me.
Everyone here keeps telling me hard luck stories, which make me feel even worse.
Gonna pack it up and and light the light,
I'm going to pack up my things and leave behind this dark place.
I'll arrive late tonight.
I will arrive late tonight at my destination.
Blackbird, bye, bye.
Finally, goodbye to the blackbird and everything that is bringing me sadness.
Writer(s): Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon
Contributed by Colton G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
سعيدانن
Blackbird, blackbird singing the blues all day
Right outside of my door
Blackbird, blackbird who do you sit and say
There's no sunshine in store
All through the winter you hung around
Now I begin to feel homeward bound
Blackbird, blackbird gotta be on my way
Where there's sunshine galore
Pack up all my care and woe
Here I go, singing low
Bye bye blackbird
Where somebody waits for me
Sugar's 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
Bluebird bluebird calling me far away
I've been longing for you
Bluebird bluebird what do I hear you say
Skies are turning to blue
I'm like a flower that's fading here
Where ev'ry hour is one long tear
Bluebird bluebird this is my lucky day
Now my dreams will come true
Pack up all my care and woe
Here I go, singing low
Bye bye blackbird
Where somebody waits for me
Sugar's 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
brook durante
Blackbird, blackbird singing the blues all day,
Right outside of my door,
Blackbird, blackbird why do you sit and say,
There's no sunshine in store,
All thru the winter you hung around
Now I begin to feel homeward bound,
Blackbird, blackbird gotta be on my way,
Where there's sunshine galore
Pack up all my care and woe,
Here I go, singing low,
Bye, bye blackbird
Where somebody waits for me,
Sugar's sweet and 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
Bluebird, bluebird, calling me far away,
I've been longing for you
Bluebird, bluebird, this is my lucky day,
Skies are turning to blue
I'm like a flower that's fading here.
Where ev'ry hour is one long tear
Bluebird, bluebird, this is my lucky day,
Now my dreams will come true
Pack up all my care and woe,
Here I go, singing low,
Bye, bye blackbird
Where somebody waits for me,
Sugar's sweet and 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
Ateya Shuborna
Blackbird, blackbird singing the blues all day
right outside of my door.
Blackbird, blackbird--got to be on your way
where there's sunshine in store.
All through the winter you just hang around.
Now you should be going homeward bound.
Blackbird, blackbird, gotta be on your way
where there's sunshine galore.
Gonna pack up all my care and woe.
Here I go, singing low.
Bye, bye, blackbird.
Where somebody waits for me,
sugar's sweet, so is he.
Bye, bye, blackbird.
No one here to love and understand me,
Oh, what hard luck stories they all hand me.
Gonna pack it up and and light the light,
I'll arrive late tonight.
Blackbird, bye, bye.
The Statuary
If you Pinky Blinder fans want more great songs like this, let me know. I'll post a list. Lots of great music was recorded in the 20's and 30's.
Nikhil࿐
Type here names
TOPCAT83
Yes please
Baiano Mermo, meu vei....
I need
Rodrigo Lopez
yoo u got 27 likes n 3 answers, u said you'll do that list, then do it, why lied to us? :(
Shaheer Imran
Yess he lied to us
Aymane sre
What a pleasure to go back to the 1920s and find singers with voices performing magnificent melodies!
How far away this good time is today!
The Statuary
Texas is proud to claim the great Gene Austin as one of our own. And, even after 95 years, this is still the best version of this song. If you can find an original 78, buy it. Nothing beats the scratchy sound of those old recordings.
Vl4d_T3p3s_++
Maravilloso, Gene Austin, la mejor versión que he escuchado de esta canción.
Billy
I like this,but Nora Brockstedt did my favorite version.