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| Music by | Harold Arlen |
| Lyrics by | Ted Koehler |
| Date | 1933 |
| Source | 1933 Cotton Club Parade |
| Publisher | S.A. Music Co.; Ted Koehler Music Co. |
"Stormy Weather," by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, is a blues song that uses bad weather as a metaphor for loneliness. The singer laments that "there's no sun up in the sky" and it "keeps raining all the time" ever since her lover left. Although the song was originally written with Cab Calloway in mind, it was first performed by Ethel Waters at the 1933 Cotton Club Parade and has since been sung by the likes of Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Lena Horne (in the film of the same name).
Wayne sang "Stormy Weather" to Wanda on episode 103 of The Muppet Show, as the duo's first onstage appearance. Not unexpectedly, his performance was disrupted by a thunderstorm just as he sings the line "stormy weather."
In his introduction, Sam the Eagle informs the audience that "besides being tremendous singers, they're church people." Sam's introduction was included on audio releases of Wayne and Wanda's performance of "Trees," beginning with the first Muppet Show album.
The sketch and introduction were cut from the episode when it was released on The Muppet Show: Season One DVDs, but appeared fully intact on the German DVD release of the episode (including the optional English soundtrack), and its Disney+ release.
References
- In episode 516, the Singing Weatherman quotes lines from this song.
- Sesame Street: In the first episode of the hurricane storyline, Reporter Kermit concludes his news report by briefly singing the lyrics "Stormy Weather". Suffering a similar fate as with The Muppet Show, Kermit's line was cut from the DVD Friends to the Rescue.
- In Episode 1215 of Sesame Street, an instrumental version of the tune plays in the final scene of this episode where Maria and David are still being sprayed with water at Chez Oscar before the song changes to the Sesame Street Theme.