Orange Colored Sky is a popular swing-tinged song written by Milton Delugg and Willie Stein and published in 1950. The first known recording, with Janet Brace singing and Delugg conducting, was made on July 11, 1950 for King Records. The best-known version was recorded by Nat King Cole with Stan Kenton’s orchestra on August 16, 1950 and released by Capitol Records as catalog 1184, reaching the Billboard Best Seller chart on September 22, 1950 for 13 weeks and peaking at No. 11. The song was also recorded by Danny Kaye and Patty Andrews, Doris Day with the Page Cavanaugh Trio, Betty Hutton, Jerry Lester, and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, among others. In 1971 it served as the title track of a Bert Kaempfert album, and later artists such as Alison Fraser, Richard Thompson, Meg, Paul Anka, Michael Bublé and Lady Gaga have covered or performed it. The piece remains a swing-pop standard and has appeared in popular culture, including Batman television performances and the Fallout video game series that features Nat King Cole’s recording on its in-game radio.
