The Schwartz Scene Blog

by Carol de Giere

Wolves howling at the moon: a suitable image for a song about living with nature, but for a t-shirt? It might not become popular without a marketing miracle. According to news reports, the rate of sales on “Three Wolf Moon” t-shirts at Amazon.com had only been a few per day for the first few years it was available.

That all changed when a YouTube video “Three Wolf Moon” appeared. A sketch comedy company calling themselves Dr. Coolsex created the video featuring a modern girl dressed as Pocahontas guiding a young man to buy and wear the shirt in order to become “one cool guy.” The soundtrack is a parody version of Stephen Schwartz’s lyric for “Colors of the Wind” about wolves, with music by Alan Menken.

As soon as the video reached hit status, the “Three Wolf Moon” t-shirt became a fashion sensation and best seller for Amazon. [Try it for yourself and see what happens] Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt, Available in Various Sizes

The video’s song lyrics spin off of comments left by Amazon.com buyers as well as Stephen Schwartz’s original “Colors of the Wind,” especially the verse: Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

The story of the origin of this line is one of my favorite.

Green Corn Moon Became Blue Corn Moon

While preparing to write lyrics for the Disney film Pocahontas, Schwartz read a lot of Native American poetry and came across a reference to a “green corn moon.” He noted that in some Native American tribes, months were named after moons, including the ‘green corn moon’ of August. He wanted to use that in a lyric but didn’t want to use “green” to avoid association with the myth of the moon being made of green cheese, and he believed that the “ee” sound wouldn’t sing well. So he switched it to blue corn moon…..

In the Pocahontas chapter of Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked, I include the full story as well as some of his handwritten notes such as rhyme ideas, the story of Carole Schwartz’s suggestion for “Just Around the Riverbend,” and more. http://www.defyinggravitythebook.com

For Some Future Moon

I recently had the chance to meet with Stephen about some upcoming events and projects. I told him about the “Three Wolf Moon” sensation. Who knows? Maybe next time you see him, he too will be wearing the t-shirt.

For future updates on this award-winning songwriter, be sure to subscribe the quarterly newsletter associated with this blog: The Schwartz Scene: http://www.musicalschwartz.com/newsletter.htm

And for the full original “Colors of the Wind” lyrics, sheet music, recordings, or DVD for the movie, see Pocahontas.