Songfacts®:

• Nashville songwriter John Scott Sherrill wrote this. It was the first big hit for Sherrill, who went on to write "Modern Day Drifter" for Dierks Bentley, "Church On Cumberland Road" for Shenandoah and "How Long Gone" for Brooks And Dunn.
• Sherrill: "It's kind of like Modern Day Drifter in a way. I'd been breaking up with my wife and I'd been seeing this other gal who was definitely wild and blue. She's the girl in that song. She could party and rock harder than anyone I'd known, and just keeping up with her was like a full time job. I'd been sitting around trying to get the phrase 'Wild Blue Yonder' in a song, and I started thinking about my girlfriend at the time, and all of the sudden I realized she was the one that was wild and blue."
• Sherrill: "That was my first real hit song. I had some stuff out with Johnny Lee, but they weren't real hits. Wild And Blue was and it was great. It was the biggest thrill of my life. That was the first time I really heard my song on the radio driving along. It was such a thrill I had to pull over - I was in danger of wrecking the truck. There's nothing like that feeling."
• Anderson's sister Donna sang the high harmony, giving it a family, back-in-the-hills sound.