Blue Valentine (album)

This article is about the album. For the film, see Blue Valentine (film).

Blue Valentine is the sixth studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on September 5, 1978, on Asylum Records.^[1] It was recorded over the course of six sessions from July to August 1978 with producer Bones Howe. Rickie Lee Jones is pictured with Waits on the back cover.^[2]

Blue Valentine
Studio album by Tom Waits
Released	September 5, 1978 (1978-09-05)
Recorded	July 24–August 26, 1978
Studio	Filmways/Heider Recording, Hollywood, California
Length	49:32
Label	Asylum
Producer	Bones Howe
Tom Waits chronology
Foreign Affairs (1977) Blue Valentine (1978) Heartattack and Vine (1980)
Singles from Blue Valentine
"Somewhere" Released: August 1978

Production

Blue Valentine was recorded in six sessions from July 24 to August 26, 1978, at Filmways/Heider Recording, Hollywood, California. Production was by Bones Howe, with second engineers Geoff Howe and Ralph Osborne. Disc mastering was by Terry Dunavan.

All the songs were written by Tom Waits apart from the opening track, "Somewhere", from the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim musical West Side Story.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Christgau's Record Guide	B[4]
Classic Rock	7/10[5]
Mojo	[6]
Pitchfork	8.3/10[7]
Q	[8]
Record Mirror	[9]
(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide	[10]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	5/10[11]
Uncut	[12]

Don Shewey of Rolling Stone found that Blue Valentine "is as solid a record as Waits has made", and that its best songs "rank high among the sentimental sagas that contain Tom Waits' strongest writing."^[13] Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote that "Waits keeps getting weirder and good for him. As sheer sendup, his 'Somewhere' beats Sid Vicious's 'My Way' his way. But I'm not always sure he understands his gift—these lyrics should be funnier. And 'Romeo Is Bleeding,' easily my favorite among his Chandleroid sagas of tragedy outside the law, is more effective on the jacket than when he underlines its emotional resonance in song. That's not weird at all."^[4]

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Somewhere" (from West Side Story)	3:53
2.	"Red Shoes by the Drugstore"	3:14
3.	"Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis"	4:33
4.	"Romeo Is Bleeding"	4:52
5.	"$29.00"	8:15
Total length:		24:47

All tracks are written by Tom Waits, except "Somewhere" (music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim).

Side two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Wrong Side of the Road"	5:14
2.	"Whistlin' Past the Graveyard"	3:17
3.	"Kentucky Avenue"	4:49
4.	"A Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Blue Gun"	5:36
5.	"Blue Valentines"	5:49
Total length:		24:45

Personnel

• Tom Waits - vocals, electric guitar (4–7, 9, 10), acoustic piano (3, 8)
• Ray Crawford (4, 6, 10 [solo]), Roland Bautista (2, 4), Alvin "Shine" Robinson (7, 9) - electric guitar
• Scott Edwards (7, 9), Jim Hughart (4, 6), Byron Miller (2, 5) - bass
• Da Willie Gonga (George Duke) - Yamaha Electric Grand piano (2, 3, 5)
• Harold Battiste - acoustic piano (7, 9)
• Charles Kynard - organ (4, 6)
• Herbert Hardesty (7, 9), Frank Vicari (4, 6) - tenor saxophone
• Rick Lawson (2, 5), Earl Palmer (7, 9), Chip White (4, 6) - drums
• Bobbye Hall Porter - congas on ("Romeo Is Bleeding")^[14]
• Bob Alcivar - orchestra

Charts

Chart (1978)	Peak position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[15]	42

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[16]	Gold	100,000^
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "Releases". Anti-. p. 1. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
2. Fuller, Arthur (6 Oct 1979). "The Trouble with Tom". The Globe and Mail. p. F5.
3. Ruhlmann, William. "Blue Valentine – Tom Waits". AllMusic. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
4. Christgau, Robert (1981). "W". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor and Fields. ISBN 0-89919-026-X. Retrieved March 21, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
5. Johnston, Emma (May 2018). "Tom Waits: Reissues". Classic Rock. No. 248. p. 98.
6. "Tom Waits: Blue Valentine". Mojo. No. 200. July 2010. p. 76.
7. Deusner, Stephen M. (March 24, 2018). "Tom Waits: The Asylum Era". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
8. "Tom Waits: Blue Valentine". Q. No. 73. October 1992. p. 101.
9. Hall, Philip (December 15, 1978). "Tom Waits: Blue Valentine". Record Mirror. p. 15.
10. Coleman, Mark; Scoppa, Bud (2004). "Tom Waits". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 854–55. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
11. Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. 1995. pp. 428, 429.
12. Gill, Andy (December 2011). "What Is He Building in There..?". Uncut. No. 175. pp. 52–53.
13. Shewey, Don (March 22, 1979). "Blue Valentine". Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
14. Hoskyns, Barney (2010). Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits. Random House. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-7679-2709-3.
15. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 331. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
16. "British album certifications – Tom Waits – Blue Valentine". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved November 11, 2023.