"Bluebird On Your Windowsill"

No personal notes.

Apparently this was first Canadian song to sell a million copies. It was written by a Vancouver nurse, Carmen Elizabeth Clarke. In 1947 she worked at what was then called the Hospital for Sick and Crippled Children. There was one little boy there who noticed a sparrow that kept hopping down onto the windowsill next to his bed. And she turned that conversation into a poem and later set it to music.

Singing the song to her patients made it popular, and she was prompted to sing it on a local radio station - CKNW. Empire Music in New Westminster published it in 1948 and, that same year, Aragon Records, a Vancouver company, made a record of the tune sung by Don Murphy. CKNW's well-known Rhythm Pals (Mike, Marc and Jack) recorded it, and also claimed to have contributed something to the final published version. The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada says 1he claim is "unsubstantiated." Several web sites show that Robert Mellin co-wrote the lyrics, but the CMRRA database only shows Elizabeth Clarke.

Wilf Carter recorded it, and it was then recorded in the U.S. by Tex Williams. It crossed over to Pop, and was recorded by Carmen Cavallaro, Freddy Martin, Ralph Flanagan, Charlie Kunz, the Andrews Sisters and several others. Then Doris Day recorded it, and then Bing Crosby.

What makes this story particularly memorable is that Elizabeth Clarke donated every dollar she got for the song to children's hospitals across Canada. It was an act of extraordinary generosity. The Children's Hospital's records for that period are buried somewhere in their archives, so it isn't possible to say how much money was involved . . . but the various versions of the song topped a million copies (in a day when that was rare) and the sheet music brought in more. In 1985, the song was used in Sandy Wilson's movie My American Cousin, and the Vancouver jazz group Mother of Pearl use the tune in their shows.

Newspaper stories show that Elizabeth Clarke wrote other songs, but none had the impact of that simple little tune inspired by the rainy-day visit of a sparrow to an ailing child. In July, 1960, aged just 49, Elizabeth Clarke died in Altamont Private Hospital in West Vancouver.

THERE'S A BLUEBIRD ON YOUR WINDOW SILL

CHORUS
[D] There's a Bluebird on your windowsill
There's a [G] rainbow in your [D] sky
There are [G] happy thoughts your [D] heart to fill
Near [A7] enough to make you [D] cry.

With ev'ry tear you've washed away
All the things you've kept inside
You count your joys this lovely day
And you wonder why you cried.

CHORUS

And if by chance your heart grows sad
You still can smile again
With ever tear you've ever shed
Comes the sunshine after rain.

CHORUS