What is the origin of the song ‘Moonlight in Vermont’?
Ben and Jerry’s, Bernie Sanders, and Maple Bourbon are some of the things Vermont is world famous for. But for some, what really puts the state on the world map is a 77-year-old jazz standard: “Moonlight in Vermont”.
Unofficial anthem of Vermont, the tune has been recorded hundreds of times, including by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke, Sarah Vaughan and Willie Nelson.
The song was written in 1944 by Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn. Blackburn attended Bennington College in the 1930s before moving to California, but the memory of Vermont has remained with him, according to on Vermont Public Radio.
“I always thought if we wrote a song about a state it would still be there,” is Blackburn cited by Vermont Public Radio, “How about Vermont? How about Moonlight in Vermont? And that’s how it all started. “
Songs Lyrics are unusual not to rhyme, but rather to follow a five-syllable, seven-syllable, and five-syllable haiku pattern again. They also pay tribute to sycamore – which is native to Vermont – but is not among its most common trees, according to the Arbor Day Foundation.
Yet its quirky charm had wide appeal, especially to soldiers stationed far from home during World War II. The lyrics “presented an idealized picture of what many soldiers had left behind,” Vermont Encyclopedia co-author Harry Orth. Recount the Burlington Free Press.
In the 1990s, a group of legislators tried to make “Moonlight in Vermont” the state’s official song, but was ultimately defeated. Some thought the melody of the song would be too difficult for the average person to sing. Still, many supported the initiative.
D. Thomas Toner, professor of music at the University of Vermont, Recount the Burlington Free Press on when the college group performed the song in Germany, Austria and Slovakia. “People were singing, even in Slovak, which was very interesting,” Toner said. “It’s a play that people all over the world knew about.”
Contact April Fisher at amfisher@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AMFisherMedia
