Musicians
- Bill Monroe — Lead Vocals, Mandolin
- Jack Cooke — Guitar
- Buddy Pennington — Banjo
- Bobby Hicks — Fiddle
- Charles Smith — Fiddle
- Bessie Lee Mauldin — Bass
“Dark as the Night, Blue as the Day” was written by Bill Monroe. He recorded it on 30 January 1959 at the Bradley Film & Recording Studio in Nashville, in the same session as “Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone,” with Jack Cooke on guitar, Buddy Pennington on banjo, Bobby Hicks and Charles Smith on fiddles and Bessie Lee Mauldin on bass. Monroe sang the lead. Decca issued the two songs on a single, number 30944, in October 1959, with “Dark as the Night, Blue as the Day” on the B side. A live version from the New River Ranch in Rising Sun, Maryland, on 1 August 1959, with Joe Stuart on banjo and Kenny Baker on fiddle, was issued in 2017.
The lyric is brief and built on a single refrain. The singer is lonesome since his darling ran away, and he asks her why she strayed. He is “dark as the night” and “blue as the day,” with blues in his heart and darkness outside since the two have been apart.
Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals recorded it live in Mito, Japan, on 2 December 1979, with Jerry McCoury singing it, and it came out on Strictly Bluegrass Live in 1981. The Nashville Bluegrass Band put it on The Boys Are Back in Town (Sugar Hill, 1990), with Pat Enright singing lead, Alan O’Bryant on banjo, Roland White on mandolin, Stuart Duncan on fiddle and Gene Libbea on bass. Dave Evans & River Bend recorded it for their Vetco sessions, and Rebel collected it on The Best of the Vetco Years in 2008. Michael Cleveland recorded it at Hilltop Studios in Nashville for Let ’Er Go, Boys! (Rounder, 2006), with Dan Tyminski and Vince Gill singing. Kathy Kallick’s band included it on Horrible World (Live Oak, 2018), and the Infamous Stringdusters on A Tribute to Bill Monroe (Americana Vibes, 2021).
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