I Never Knew Someone Like You Who Sees Me Clear as Sky Is Blue
In 1996, George Strait had yet another award-winning No. 1 smash with "Blue Clear Sky," an effervescent song about being struck by love when you least expect it.
And yes, it's called "Blue Clear Sky." Not "Clear Blue Sky."
The song's co-writer, Bob DiPiero, had to have that conversation several times. First with his co-writers, John Jarrard and Mark D. Sanders. Then with the song's producer, Tony Brown, and finally with Strait himself. But in every instance, once DiPiero explained its inspiration — a line from "Forrest Gump" — the title stuck.
DiPiero told the story behind the song to Bart Herbison of Nashville Songwriters Association International.
Bart Herbsion: Legendary Bob DiPiero, Hall of Fame songwriter, the late John Jarrard, and Mark D. Sanders co-wrote "Blue Clear Sky." Now I'm not going to ask a lot of questions because this is in my top-five favorite songs stories of all time. We'll get to the phone call that you got from the artist to end this, but let's go back to the day you three wrote it. Take us back.
Bob Dipiero:The night before we wrote this song, I went to see the movie "Forrest Gump." You know, that's become a classic movie…about maybe a third of the way through the movie, Forrest was talking about his girlfriend, Jenny. And she would come and go. And so he goes, (DiPiero impersonates Forrest) "And Jenny was gone. And all of a sudden, out of the blue clear sky, I got a letter from her."
BH: Songwriter ears come on, right then?
BD: Yeah, and I was just into the movie at the time, but I went, 'Blue Clear Sky? That's backwards. But you know, I just took it as that was Forrest's personality. The next day, I went to writing session with, as you said, Mark D. Sanders, and the late but great, John Jarrard… Nobody had much (to start with). So I said, "Man, I went and saw 'Forrest Gump' and he said, 'Blue clear sky.'" And they said, "Blue clear sky, that's backwards." And I said, "Yeah, but that's what's cool about it…"
We didn't have anything else to write, so we wrote "Blue Clear Sky," and it's another one of those days where once we started on it, it just seemed to write itself out. It just seemed to be a story about somebody else. You swear you've had enough and you're about to give up on "that little lie you call love." I love that line, because it's like, this guy is over it, (saying) "I'll never fall in love," (but) then, out of the blue clear sky. We did a demo, and three weeks later, I get this call.
BH: By the way, this is my favorite part of the story.
BD: And I must say, you know that I'm a songwriter, and a storyteller, and I've been known to make stuff up. But this was all 110 percent true. The phone rings. It's Tony Brown. Tony Brown was a very successful, well-known producer in Nashville. He called me, and he never called me before. I didn't know how he got my number. He goes, "Hey, man, we're in the studio right now. We're getting ready to record your song." I was like, "My song?"
BH: So you didn't even know who the artist was, or did you?
BD: Well, as soon as he said, "Tony Brown," of course, all of Nashville was clued into the fact that Tony Brown was producing the one, the only, George Strait…He said, "We're in the studio and we're getting ready to record your song. But don't you think this should be called 'Clear Blue Sky,' not 'Blue Clear Sky?'" And I just launched into (my story about seeing "Forrest Gump").
Then his voice comes on the phone, once again, 120 percent true. And this voice does not say "Hello, Bob. This is George Strait," or "Hey, Bob. It's George," or "Hey, man, George Strait." What he said was, "Hey, where are you from?"
I said, "What?"
And he goes, "Where are you from?"
"Where am I from? I'm from Ohio."
And he goes, "Well, I'm from Texas. And in Texas, we do not say blue clear sky. We say clear blue sky. Don't you think this song ought to be called 'Clear Blue Sky."
This is George Strait, but he caught me so off guard I just told him the truth…And he goes "Hmm." And it was like a pregnant pause, you know.
And I said, "So George, what do you think you're going to do?"
And he goes, "Well, let me ask you a question. Do you think there's many Gumpsters out there?"
BH: Wait. George Strait said the word "Gumpsters?"
BD: Yes. He said it man. He said it. "Do you think there's many Gumpsters out there?"
And, you know, I'm shocked that he's on the phone. I said, "Yeah, I think there's a ton of them because the theater was full of people, full of Gumpsters in there. And when I left the theater, there was a line down the block of people getting ready to get Gumpsterized going to see 'Forrest Gump.'"
And he goes, "Well, I guess we'll be Gumpsters then!" And he hung this phone up and cut the song "Blue Clear Sky." "Blue Clear Sky" became a multi-week number one record. He named his album, "Blue Clear Sky" and (it) became the CMA Album of the Year.
…And a P.S. on the story. About a year later, I was coming out of the studio in Nashville, and walking towards me is George Strait. And by then you know we'd met and, and he said, "Man, I never told you this, but I tried to sing it, 'out of the clear blue sky' several times, because I still thought that was it (the way I should). But it just didn't have that thing." Whatever that thing is, you know, that X-factor, that thing that just makes it just that much different between a good song and a forever kind of hit song.
About the series
In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, the "Story Behind the Song" video interview series features Nashville-connected songwriters discussing one of their compositions. For full video interviews with all of our subjects, visit www.tennessean.com/music.
Source: https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/story-behind-the-song/2021/10/01/story-behind-song-george-straits-blue-clear-sky/5903060001/
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