Edward Foote Gardner’s Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Songs of the Year, 1900-1949

Edward Foote Gardner Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Songs of the Year, 1900-1949

Edward Foote Gardner’s book, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949 tackled the task of crafting charts for the popular songs of the pre-rock era. He developed a top 20 chart for each month of every year from 1900-1949. These are the top songs for each year based on that book. Check out other “songs of the year” lists here. 1900: George J. Gaskin “When You Were Sweet Sixteen” 1901: Big Four Quartet “Goodbye Dolly Gray” 1902: J.W. Myers “On a Sunday Afternoon” 1903: Bryon G. Harlan “Always in the Way” 1904: Bryon G. Harlan with Frank Stanley “Blue Bell” 1905: Henry Burr (as Irving Gillette) “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” 1906: Henry Burr “Love Me and the World Is Mine” 1907: Bryon G. Harlan “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” 1908: Haydn Quartet “Sunbonnet Sue” 1909: Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” 1910: Henry Burr “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” 1911: Arthur Collins and Bryon G. Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” 1912: Heidelberg Quintet “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” 1913: Al Jolson “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” 1914: Billy Murray “He’d Have to Get Under, Get Out and Get Under, to Fix Up His Automobile” 1915: George MacFarlane “A Little Bit of Heaven (Shure, They Call It Ireland)” 1916: Billy Murray “Pretty Baby” 1917: American Quartet “Over There” 1918: Joseph C. Smith & Harry MacDonough “Smiles” 1919: Henry Burr with Albert Campbell “Till We Meet Again” 1920: Paul Whiteman “Whispering” 1921: Ted Lewis “All by Myself” 1922: Paul Whiteman “Three O’Clock in the Morning” 1923: Billy Murray with Ed Smalle “That Old Gang of Mine” 1924: Paul Whiteman “What’ll I Do?” 1925: Al Jolson “All Alone” 1926: George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice, & Edward Joyce “Always” 1927: Guy Lombardo with Weston Vaughan “Charmaine” 1928: Gene Austin “Ramona” 1929: Leo Reisman with Lew Conrad “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” 1930: Ben Selvin “When It’s Springtime in the Rockies” 1931: Kate Smith “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain” 1932: Ted Lewis “In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town” 1933: Joe Green’s Novelty Orchestra “In the Valley of the Moon” 1934: Ray Noble with Al Bowlly “The Old Spinning Wheel” 1935: Glen Gray with Kenny Sargent “When I Grow Too Old to Dream” 1936: Shep Fields “In the Chapel in the Moonlight” 1937: Guy Lombardo “When My Dream Boat Comes Home” 1938: Larry Clinton with Bea Wain “My Reverie” 1939: Will Glahe “Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel)” 1940: Glenn Miller with Marion Hutton “The Woodpecker Song” 1941: Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly “Maria Elena” 1942: Vaughn Monroe “When the Lights Go on Again All Over the World” 1943: The Mills Brothers “Paper Doll” 1944: Dinah Shore “I’ll Walk Alone” 1945: Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey” 1946: The Ink Spots “The Gypsy” 1947: The Harmonicats “Peg O’ My Heart” 1948: Jon Steele & Sandra “My Happiness” 1949: Perry Como “Some Enchanted Evening” Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “‘Songs of the Year’ lists” Edward Foote Gardner (2000). Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949. Paragon House: St. Paul, MN. First posted 4/6/2019; last updated 12/22/2022.

Edward Foote Gardner’s Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949

Edward Foote Gardner: Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949

Edward Foote Gardner’s book, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949 tackled the task of crafting charts for the popular songs of the pre-rock era. He developed a top 20 chart for each month of every year from 1900-1949. The charts listed only song titles and not particular performers as it was common in the pre-rock era for multiple artists to have recordings of the same hit songs. As for how Gardner developed these charts, he explains how he “processed over a million bits of information regarding about 5000 song candidates” (xi) for 1900-1929 alone, taking into account “three major areas of popularity: frequency of performance in vaudeville, sheet-music sales, and record and piano-roll sales. In later years, as vaudeville gave way to radio, airplay became a major factor” (xi). For the 1930s, he “relied heavily on the record and sheet-music rankings in Variety and Metronome, rakings on ‘Your Hit Parade,’ and sheet-music and jukebox charts in Billboard” (xi). In the 1940s, Billboard began weekly charts of best-selling records and continued charts for sheet-music sales and radio performance. In 1945, they began their Honor Roll of Hits which tracked the top 10 to 15 songs. Gardner largely followed these charts from that point on, fleshing out his top 20 charts with songs from he Billboard charts on jukebox plays, jockey plays, and record sales. In addition to the monthly charts, Gardner provides spreadsheets so one can track a song’s full chart run. He also offers blurbs about the 4000+ songs which include their writers, publishers, and significant artists who recorded it. Most Notable Sources Cited in Book: Gardner offers an extensive bibliography of his sources, but specifically notes the below books and weekly trade papers in the introduction. Billboard (1908-1949). Cincinnati. Roger D. Kinkle (1974). The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House. Julius Mattfeld (1962). Variety Music Cavalcade. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Metronome (1899-1938). New York. The Music Trades (1899-1929). New York, published by John C. Freund. Sigmund Spaeth (1948). A History of Popular Music in America. New York: Random House. Talking Machine World (1905-1930). New York, published by Edward Lyman Bill. Variety (1907-1949). New York. Dave’s Music Database lists based on Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: “Lists Based on Charts, Sales, and Airplay” Edward Foote Gardner (2000). Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century. Paragon House: St. Paul, MN. First posted 12/22/2022.