"Blue" is the title song from

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

's 1971 album of the same name. The song is generally thought to be about

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...

, with the line "Here is a song for you" being directed to Taylor. As Sheila Weller states in the biography ''Girls Like Us'', "Its references to a drug addict's 'needles' and...proffering a seashell to her lover...make it fairly clear that 'Blue' is about James". The lines "acid, booze and ass, needles guns and grass, lots of laughs" from "Blue" were sampled for a bonus track titled "Song 4 U" on

Mac Dre Andre Louis Hicks (July 5, 1970 – November 1, 2004), known artistically as Mac Dre, was an American rapper, record producer and songwriter from Vallejo, California. He was an instrumental figure in the emergence of hyphy, a cultural movement ...

's '' The Genie of the Lamp'' album. The song is sampled on the track "My World Is..", from Blu and Exile's 2007 album '' Below the Heavens''. The track is also sampled on "Catch My Drift", a 1989 song by the British group A.R. Kane. "Blue" also appears in an important scene in the critically acclaimed 2019 film The Last Black Man in San Francisco. The director, Joe Talbot, was unable to secure permissions for Mac Dre's "Song 4 U" but was able to get needle-drop rights to Mitchell's original recording.

Cover versions

Angie Hart Angela Ruth Hart, billed as Angie Hart, is an Australian singer best known for her role as lead vocalist in the alternative pop rock band Frente! and the indie pop duo Splendid (musical duo), Splendid with her then-husband Jesse Tobias. Hart's s ...

recorded an a cappella version which was released in 1993 as a B-side on

Frente! Frente! (or Frente) is an Australian folk- pop and indie pop group which originally formed in 1989. The original line-up consisted of Simon Austin on guitar and backing vocals, Angie Hart on lead vocals, Tim O'Connor on bass guitar (later repl ...

's "No Time" single. *

Sarah McLachlan Sarah Ann McLachlan (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is ''Surfacing (album), Surfacing'' (1997), for which she won two G ...

's version appeared on her 1996 compilation '' Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff.'' *

Cat Power Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter. Cat Power was originally the name of her first band, but has become her stage name as a solo artist. Born in ...

released a version on her 2008 studio album '' Jukebox''. * Rufus Wainwright's version appeared on the 2019 live tribute album '' Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration''

References

Joni Mitchell songs Songs written by Joni Mitchell Song recordings produced by Joni Mitchell 1971 songs {{1970s-song-stub