Stormy Weather

When the movie Stormy Weather came out in 1943, it was a big deal in Detroit. The Michigan Chronicle, the Black community’s newspaper, reported on the release and the Detroit premiere for weeks. It was a perfect song for the moment in Detroit, with its wistfulness about the man far away, and the underlying reference to the turbulence that Black Detroit just lived through over the summer.

Lena Horne’s version is the best.