Showing posts with label American Quartet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American Quartet. Show all posts

Monday, October 2, 2023

Vaudeville: Top 100 Songs

Vaudeville:

Top 100 Songs

Vaudeville was a theatrical genre which emerged in France at the end of the 19th century. They were generally comedies interspersed with songs. The format was popular in the United States from the early 1880s through the early 1930s, but became more of a series of separate acts grouped together on a bill. They could be comprised of singers, dancers, comedians, one-act plays, and circus acts.

This effort to put together a list of the top vaudeville songs of all time is based on only a handful of sources (see the bottom of the page). As such, someone with actual expertise on vaudeville may quibble with songs on this list and I welcome their input and hope they can turn me on to more sources. As it is, I took the songs referenced in the sources below and listed them here based on their overall status in Dave’s Music Database.

It should be noted that the versions listed here which ever ranked highest in Dave’s Music Database although many of these songs were introduced on vaudeville by different performers than those who had hit recordings with them.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

1. Arthur Collins with Bryon G. Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)
2. Al Jolson “Swanee” (1920)
3. Billy Murray & the Haydn Quartet “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908)
4. Billy Murray “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”)” (1906)
5. Al Jolson “April Showers” (1922)
6. Haydn Quartet “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” (1904)
7. Billy Murray “Give My Regards to Broadway” (1905)
8. American Quartet “Moonlight Bay” (1912)
9. Harry MacDonough with Elise Stevenson (as Miss Walton) “Shine on, Harvest Moon” (1909)
10. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1910)

11. Arthur Collins “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home” (1902)
12. Billy Murray “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” (1904)
13. Bryon G. Harlan “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” (1907)
14. Sophie Tucker “Some of These Days” (1911)
15. Marion Harris “After You’ve Gone” (1919)
16. Billy Murray “Yankee Doodle Boy” (1905)
17. Arthur Collins with Bryon G. Harlan “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1918)
18. Al Jolson “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” (1918)
19. American Quartet with Billy Murray “Casey Jones” (1910)
20. Bryon G. Harlan “My Gal Sal” (1907)

21. Harry MacDonough “Down by the Old Mill Stream” (1911)
22. Henry Burr “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” (1909)
23. Bryon G. Harlan “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” (1906)
24. Haydn Quartet “Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet” (1909)
25. George J. Gaskin “After the Ball” (1893)
26. Van & Schenk “For Me and My Gal” (1917)
27. Gene Austin “My Melancholy Baby” (1928)
28. Gene Austin “Bye Bye Blackbird” (1926)
29. Henry Burr (as Irving Gillette) “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” (1905)
30. Louis Armstrong “All of Me” (1932)

31. Billy Jones “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (1923)
32. Knickerbocker Quartet “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile” (1917)
33. Heidelberg Quintet “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” (1912)
34. Prince’s Orchestra “Ballin’ the Jack” (1914)
35. Peerless Quartet “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (1915)
36. Eddie Cantor “If You Knew Susie Like I Knew Susie” (1925)
37. Paul Whiteman “My Mammy” (1921)
38. Heidelberg Quintet “By the Beautiful Sea” (1914)
39. Wendell Hall “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’” (1924)
40. Charles Harrison “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” (1918)

41. Paul Whiteman “The Japanese Sandman” (1920)
42. Victor Military Band “Poor Butterfly” (1917)
43. John Steel “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” (1919)
44. Bert Williams “Nobody” (1906)
45. J.W. Myers “On a Sunday Afternoon” (1902)
46. Ada Jones with Billy Murray & the American Quartet “Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine” (1911)
47. Henry Burr “M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me)” (1916)
48. Arthur Collins “Hello Ma Baby” (1899)
49. Henry Burr “My Buddy” (1922)
50. Elsie Baker (aka “Edna Brown”) “I Love You Truly” (1912)

51. Fanny Brice with the Rosario Bourdon Orchestra “My Man (Mon Homme)” (1922)
52. Jan Garber with Benny Davis “Baby Face” (1926)
53. Ray Miller “The Sheik of Araby” (1921)
54. Ted Lewis “All by Myself” (1921)
55. Ted Lewis “When My Baby Smiles at Me” (1920)
56. Arthur Collins & Bryon G. Harlan “Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey (I Never Knew Any Girl Like You)” (1911)
57. Paul Whiteman “Wang Wang Blues” (1920)
58. Billy Murray “Pretty Baby” (1916)
59. Ed Gallagher & Al Shean “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean” (1922)
60. Fanny Brice with the Rosario Bourdon Orchestra “Second Hand Rose” (1922)

61. Arthur Collins “Under the Bamboo Tree” (1902)
62. Nora Bayes “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm After They’ve Seen Paree?” (1919)
63. Arthur Collins & Bryon G. Harlan “Down Where the Wurzburger Flows” (1919)
64. Bob Roberts “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” (1912)
65. Charles Harrison “I’ll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time” (1920)
66. Paul Whiteman with the Rhythm Boys “Side by Side” (1927)
67. Richard Jose “Silver Threads Among the Gold” (1904)
68. Bryon G. Harlan & Frank Stanley “Blue Bell” (1904)
69. Benny Krueger “I Cried for You” (1923)
70. Prince’s Orchestra “The Memphis Blues” (1914)

71. Paul Whiteman “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” (1923)
72. Peerless Quartet “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl Who Married Dear Old Dad” (1911)
73. George Alexander “Mighty Like a Rose (aka “Mighty Lak a Rose”)” (1903)
74. Peerless Quartet “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” (1922)
75. Ben Pollack & Franklyn Baur “Sweet Sue, Just You” (1928)
76. Bert Williams “Play That Barber-Shop Chord” (1910)
77. Henry Burr & Arthur Campbell “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” (1913)
78. Paul Whiteman “Linger Awhile” (1924)
79. Harry MacDonough “The Mansion of Aching Hearts” (1902)
80. Billy Murray “Come Take a Trip in My Air Ship” (1905)

81. Len Spencer “Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay” (1892)
82. Ada Jones “Row Row Row!” (1913)
83. Paul Whiteman with Jack Fulton “In a Little Spanish Town (‘Twas on a Night Like This)” (1927)
84. Arthur Collins “Any Rags?” (1903)
85. Harry MacDonough “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder” (1901)
86. Red Nichols “Ida! Sweet As Apple Cider” (1927)
87. American Quartet “When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose” (1914)
88. Cecil Fanning “A Perfect Day” (1911)
89. Sophie Tucker “I Ain’t Got Nobody” (1927)
90. Bert Williams “He’s a Cousin of Mine” (1907)

91. Henry Burr “I’m Sorry I Made You Cry” (1918)
92. American Quartet “Chinatown, My Chinatown” (1915)
93. Frank Stanley & Elise Stevenson “Good Evening, Caroline” (1909)
94. Blossom Seely “Alabamy Bound” (1925)
95. Peerless Quartet “If I Had My Way (I’d Live Among the Gypsies)” (1914)
96. Billy Murray “Under the Anheuser Busch” (1904)
97. McKinney’s Cotton Pickers with George Thomas “If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight” (1930)
98. Bessie Smith “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home” (1923)
99. John McCormack “Moonlight and Roses” (1925)
100. Arthur Fields “Ja Da (Ja Da, Ja Da, Jing Jing Jing)” (1919)

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First posted 4/3/2021; last updated 10/2/2023.

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Sunday, February 26, 2023

Top 100 Songs from 1910-1919

Top 100 Songs of the Decade:

1910-1919

These are the top 100 songs from the 1910s according to Dave’s Music Database. Rankings are figured by combining sales figures, chart data, radio airplay, video airplay, streaming figures, awards, and appearances on best-of lists.

Check out other “songs of the decade” lists here.

1. Arthur Collins & Bryon G. Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)
2. American Quartet “Over There” (1917)
3. Peerless Quartet “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1911)
4. Al Jolson “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” (1913)
5. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1910)
6. American Quartet “Moonlight Bay” (1912)
7. Original Dixieland Jazz Band “Tiger Rag” (1918)
8. Sophie Tucker “Some of These Days” (1911)
9. Marion Harris “After You’ve Gone” (1919)
10. Al Jolson “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” (1918)

11. Henry Burr & Albert Campbell “Till We Meet Again” (1919)
12. Chauncey Olcott “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” (1913)
13. John McCormack “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” (1915)
14. Casey Jones...American Quartet with Billy Murray (1910)
15. Down by the Old Mill Stream...Harry MacDonough (1911)
16. Darktown Strutters’ Ball...Original Dixieland Jazz Band (1918)
17. They Didn't Believe Me...Harry MacDonough with Olive Kline (1915)
18. The Knickerbocker Quartet “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile” (1917)
19. Arthur Fields “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” (1918)
20. Alma Gluck “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” (1915)

21. Henry Burr “Beautiful Ohio” (1919)
22. Heidelberg Quintet “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” (1912)
23. Victor Military Band “Poor Butterfly” (1917)
24. Arthur Collins & Bryon G. Harlan “The Aba Daba Honeymoon” (1914)
25. Charles Harrison “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” (1918)
26. Henry Burr “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight (For Her Daddy Over There)” (1918)
27. John Steel “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” (1919)
28. Ben Selvin “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” (1919)
29. Peerless Quartet “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (1915)
30. Heidelberg Quintet “By the Beautiful Sea” (1914)

31. Billy Murray with the American Quartet “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” (1911)
32. Henry Burr “When I Lost You” (1913)
33. George MacFarlane “A Little Bit of Heaven (“Shure, They Call It Ireland”)” (1915)
34. Elsie Baker “The Missouri Waltz (Hush-a-Bye Ma Baby)” (1917)
35. Henry Burr “M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me)” (1916)
36. Chauncey Olcott “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral (That’s an Irish Lullaby)” (1913)
37. Prince’s Orchestra “Ballin’ the Jack” (1914)
38. Elsie Baker “I Love You Truly” (1912)
39. Billy Murray & Ada Jones with American Quartet “Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine” (1911)
40. Anna Wheaton with James Harrod “Till the Clouds Roll By” (1917)

41. Fisk University Jubilee Quartet “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (1910)
42. Ernestine Schumann-Heink “Danny Boy” (1918)
43. Arthur Collins & Bryon G. Harlan “Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey (I Never Knew Any Girl Like You)” (1911)
44. Irving Kaufman with the Columbia Quartet “Hail! Hail! The Gang’s All Here” (1918)
45. Bob Roberts “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” (1912)
46. Billy Murray “Pretty Baby” (1916)
47. Nora Bayes “How ‘Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm after They've Seen Paree?” (1919)
48. Henry Burr “Oh! What a Pal Was Mary” (1919)
49. American Quartet “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!” (1917)
50. Henry Burr “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” (1910)

51. Henry Burr “Goodbye, Good Luck, God Bless You (Is All That I Can Say)” (1916)
52. Harry MacDonough “Where the River Shannon Flows” (1910)
53. American Quartet “Goodbye Broadway, Hello France” (1917)
54. Arthur Collins & Bryon G. Harlan “When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam’” (1913)
55. Prince’s Orchestra “The Star Spangled Banner” (1916)
56. John McCormack “I’m Falling in Love with Someone” (1911)
57. Joseph C. Smith’s Orchestra with Harry MacDonough “Smiles” (1918)
58. James F. Harrison “Keep the Home Fires Burning” (1915)
59. Billy Murray & Ada Jones “Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee” (1912)
60. Nora Bayes with Joseph Pasternach’s Orchestra “Over There” (1917)

61. Bert Williams “Play That Barber-Shop Chord” (1910)
62. Henry Burr & Albert Campbell “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine” (1913)
63. Olive Kline with Edward Hamilton “Hello Frisco!” (1915)
64. Al Jolson “I’ll Say She Does” (1919)
65. Prince’s Orchestra “The Memphis Blues” (1914)
66. Billy Murray “K-K-K-Katy (The Stammering Song)” (1918)
67. Charles Harrison “Peg O’ My Heart” (1913)
68. Al Jolson “The Spaniard That Blighted My Life” (1913)
69. Henry Burr “Last Night Was the End of the World” (1913)
70. John McCormack “Mother Machree” (1911)

71. Henry Burr with Albert Campbell “I’m on My Way to Mandalay” (1914)
72. Peerless Quartet “Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad” (1911)
73. Joe Hayman “Cohen on the Telephone” (1914)
74. James F. Harrison with James Reed “There’s a Long, Long Trail” (1915)
75. Enrico Caruso “Over There” (1918)
76. Arthur Clough with the Brunswick Quartet “Down by the Old Mill Stream” (1911)
77. Al Jolson “That Haunting Melody” (1912)
78. John McCormack “Somewhere a Voice Is Calling” (1916)
79. Al Jolson “Ragging the Baby to Sleep” (1912)
80. Arthur Collins with Bryon G. Harlan “Under the Yum Yum Tree” (1911)

81. Henry Burr & Albert Campbell “When I Was Twenty-One and You Were Sweet Sixteen” (1912)
82. Ada Jones “Row! Row! Row!” (1913)
83. American Quartet “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” (1914)
84. Cecil Fanning “A Perfect Day” (1911)
85. Al Jolson “Hello Central, Give Me No Man’s Land” (1918)
86. Nicholas Orlando’s Orchestra with Harry Macdonough & Charles Hart “Till We Meet Again” (1919)
87. Van & Schenck “For Me and My Gal” (1917)
88. Alma Gluck with Efrem Zimbalist “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (1915)
89. Charles Harrison “Ireland Must Be Heaven for My Mother Came from There” (1916)
90. Arthur Collins with Bryon G. Harlan “I Love the Ladies” (1914)

91. Peerless Quartet “Over There” (1917)
92. American Quartet “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1914)
93. American Quartet “When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose” (1915)
94. Alma Gluck “Listen to the Mocking Bird (aka “The Mocking Bird”)” (1916)
95. Billy Murray “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)
96. Harry MacDonough with Lucy Isabelle Marsh “Every Little Movement” (1910)
97. Henry Burr “I’m Sorry I Made You Cry” (1918)
98. Henry Burr with Albert Campbell “There’s a Quaker Down in Quaker Town” (1916)
99. Arthur Clough “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1911)
100. Charles Harrison with the Columbia Stellar Quartet “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1918)

Resources/Related Links:

First posted 4/4/2012; last updated 3/26/2020.

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Thursday, July 22, 2021

Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Song Inductees (July 2021)

Originally posted 7/22/2021.

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the DMDB blog on January 22, 2019, Dave’s Music Database launched its own Hall of Fame. This is the eleventh set of song inductees. These are the 10 highest-ranked songs that make the DMDB’s list of the “Top 100 Vaudeville Songs of All Time”. It does not include previously inducted songs “You’re a Grand Old Flag” by Billy Murray, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” by Arthur Collins and Bryon G. Harlan, “April Showers” and “Swanee” by Al Jolson, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” by Billy Murray & the Haydn Quartet.

Arthur Collins “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Come Home” (1902)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

This “early ragtime classic” RCG and “favorite of Dixie jazz bands” JA-22 became a “sing-along standard” RCG thanks to the ease with which it could be adapted to jazz or played on honky-tonk piano or banjo. RCG John Queen, a minstrel and songwriter introduced this instant hit. Arthur Collins, Dan Quinn, and Silas Leachman each took the song to the top 5 in 1902, but Collins’ version was the biggest. PM He was no stranger to the top, having landed there seven times before. This, however, was his biggest hit yet. Read more.

Billy Murray “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” (1904)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

In 1904, the world shone a light on St. Louis. In celebration of the centential of the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. “Gateway to the West” became the stage for two major parties – the World’s Fair and the third modern Olympic Games. Composer Kerry Mills and lyricist Andrew Sterling capitalized on the city’s popularity by penning what what would become the exposition’s theme song. RA Read more.

Haydn Quartet “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” (1904)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

As “the signature barbershop song,” DS “Sweet Adeline” may represent the sound of the first decade of the 20th century, WHC maybe even the first two decades, DS more than any other song. WHC The style of four-part male harmony with little or no musical accompaniment was popularized by groups like the Haydn Quartet who scored their sixth #1 with “Sweet Adeline,” the biggest hit of 1904. WHC Read more.

Billy Murray “Yankee Doodle Boy” (1905)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

George M. Cohan “virtually invented musical comedy” LW predating future musical theatre greats like Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, and Richard Rodgers. His first two efforts at Broadway musicals flopped, but his third attempt, 1904’s Little Johnny Jones, was a hit PS producing “Give My Regards to Broadway” and “Yankee Doodle Boy.” PS Billy Murray’s recording of the latter gave the Victor record company its biggest seller up to that point. SS Read more.

Billy Murray “Give My Regards to Broadway” (1905)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

George M. Cohan wrote, composed, produced, acted, and danced in the Broadway musical, Little Johnny Jones, inspired by real-life jockey Tod Sloan. The show featured “Give My Regards to Broadway” which “could only have been sung by an opinionated, cocky young man with a very high opinion of his own worth.” LW Cohan was a natural. Read more.

Bryon G. Harlan “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” (1907)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

In the early 1900s, sentimental ballads were popular and songs like “Shine on, Harvest Moon,” “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree,” and “School Days” “exemplified this musical style.” WHC These songs dominated sheet music sales, as they “could be sung in the parlor at home around the family piano.” WHC It “remains a singalong favorite.” JA Read more.

Harry Macdonough with Miss Walton “Shine on Harvest Moon” (1909)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

Nora Bayes and husband Jack Norworth wrote what may be “the most recognized of the many ‘moon’ ballads.” RCG It was “decidedly old-fashioned and a product of twentieth century innocence.” RCG The duo introduced the song in Florenz Ziegfeld’s Follies of 1908. The couple didn’t last, divorcing in 1913 (the second of five marriages for Bayes!), SF but the song survived. Both performed it the rest of their lives and it became Bayes’ signature song. RCG Read more.

Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1910)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

Edward Madden crafted the words for “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” around Gus Edwards “somewhat dreamy music that lends itself to soft shoe.” RCG Its “moon-June-croon rhymes” are “cliché by today’s standards,” RCG but were representative of the Tin Pan Alley era which dominated music in the early 1900s. Read more.

Sophie Tucker “Some of These Days” (1911)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

This has been called “the most important turning point in Tin Pan Alley history” because it was completely different than other popular music of the day. RCG Canadian songwriter Shelton Brooks originally composed this blues number as a waltz, but integrated jazz into the song’s loose structure. As such, jazz musicians had a wide-open pallet on which to improvise. RCG Read more.

American Quartet “Moonlight Bay” (1912)

Inducted July 2021 as “Top Vaudeville Songs”

“Arguably the best moonlight song ever written,” PS “Moonlight Bay” “conjures up an entire lost era of a slower-paced America that…had plenty of time for gentle spooning in an unspoiled natural setting.” SS It is “a very durable song from Tin Pan Alley about an idyllic setting for romance.” RCG Read more.
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Saturday, May 25, 2019

Billy Murray: Top 100 Songs

First posted 11/26/2017; updated 5/25/2019.

Tenor singer known as “The Denver Nightingale.” Born William Thomas Murray on 5/25/1877 to Irish immigrants in Philadelphia, PA. His family moved to Denver, Colorado in 1882. Died 8/17/1954. His popularity lasted through the first quarter of the 20th century, a time when, what he called his “hammering” style of shouting into an acoustic recording horn, was the technology prior to the rise of the electric microphone, which ushered in the era of crooners.

He joined a vaudeville troupe in 1893 and performed in minstrel shows early in his career. He started recording regularly in New York in 1903. He became the definitive interpreter of George M. Cohan, recording the hit version of nearly every Cohan song from 1905 on. In addition to his solo recordings, he worked with the Haydn Quartet (1898-1914), Columbia Comedy Trio (1907), with Ada Jones (1907-22), American Quartet (1910-25?) and the Heidelberg Quintet (1911-15).

Murray has eight songs (“You’re a Grand Old Flag,” “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “By the Light of the Silvery Moon,” Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis,” “Yankee Doodle Boy,” “Casey Jones,” and “In My Merry Oldsmobile”) featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953.

For a complete list of this act’s songs and albums honored by the DMDB, check out the DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia entry.

Top 100 Songs
Dave’s Music Database lists are determined by song’s appearances on best-of lists as well as chart success, sales, radio airplay, streaming, and awards.

AQ = American Quartet, HQ = Haydn Quartet, AJ = Ada Jones. Songs which hit the top of the U.S. pop charts are noted (#1).

DMDB Top 1%:

1. You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”) (1906) #1
2. Take Me Out to the Ball Game (w/ HQ, 1908) #1
3. Give My Regards to Broadway (1905) #1
4. By the Light of the Silvery Moon (w/ HQ, 1910) #1
5. Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis (1904) #1
6. Yankee Doodle Boy (1905) #1
7. Casey Jones (w/ AQ, 1910) #1
8. In My Merry Oldsmobile (1905) #1
9. Harrigan (1907) #1

10. Oh, You Beautiful Doll (w/ AQ, 1911) #1
11. Come Josephine in My Flying Machine (w/ AJ, 1911) #1
12. Pretty Baby (1916) #1
13. Cuddle Up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine (w/ AJ, 1908) #1
14. That Old Gang of Mine (w/ Ed Smalle, 1923) #1
15. Navajo (1904) #1
16. K-K-K-Katy (Stammering Song) (1918)
17. Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee (w/ AJ, 1912) #1

DMDB Top 5%:

18. Everybody Works But Father (1905) #1
19. Come Take a Trip in My Air Ship (1905) #1
20. Let’s Take an Old-Fashioned Walk (w/ AJ, 1907) #1

21. I Love a Piano (1916) #1
22. Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1911)
23. Shine on, Harvest Moon (w/ AJ, 1909) #1
24. Under the Anheuser Busch (1904)
25. Alexander (Don’t You Love Your Baby No More?) (1904) #1
26. Under Any Old Flag at All (1908) #1
27. When We Are M-A-R-R-I-E-D (w/ AJ, 1908) #1
28. Teasing (I Was Only Teasing You) (1904)
29. Waltz Me Around Again, Willie (w/ HQ, 1906)
30. Forty-Five Minutes from Broadway (1906)

31. I’ll See You in C-U-B-A (1920)
32. He’d Have to Get Under, Get Out to Get Under, to Fix Up His Automobile (1914)
33. Play a Simple Melody (w/ Edna Brown, 1916)
34. Bedelia (1904) #1
35. Carrie (Carrie Marry Harry) (1910) #1
36. Make Believe (w/ AJ, 1908)
37. No Wedding Bells for Me (1907)
38. All Alone (w/ AJ, 1911)
39. Down by the O-hi-O (I’ve Got the Sweetest Little O, My! O!) (w/ Billy Jones, 1921)
40. Camptown Races (Gwine to Run All Night) (1911)

41. I’m Afraid to Come Home in the Dark (1908)
42. Cheyenne (Shy Anne) (1906)
43. The Gaby Glide (1912)
44. He’s a Devil in His Own Home Town (1914)
45. College Life (1906)
46. I’ve Taken Quite a Fancy to You (w/ AJ, 1908)
47. He Goes to Church on Sunday (1907)
48. Smarty (w/ AJ, 1908)
49. Over There (1917)
50. Wouldn’t You Like to Have Me for a Sweetheart? (w/ AJ, 1908) #1

51. Up in a Cocoanut Tree (1903)
52. When You’re All Dressed Up and No Place to Go (1914)
53. What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For? (w/ AJ, 1917)
54. It Looks Like a Big Night Tonight (1908)
55. For Me and My Gal (1917)
56. San Antonio (Cowboy Song) (1907)
57. What’s the Matter with Father? (1910)
58. Won’t You Be My Honey? (w/ AJ, 1907)
59. Bagdad (1913)
60. The Vamp (w/ Joseph C. Smith & Harry MacDonough, 1919)

61. They Were All Out of Step But Jim (1918)
62. I’m Awfully Glad I Met You (w/ AJ, 1909)
63. I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now (1910)
64. Tessie (You Are the Only Only) (1903)
65. I Can’t Do the Sum (1904)
66. On San Francisco Bay (1907)
67. Take Me Around Again (1907)
68. Not Because Your Hair Is Curly (1906)

DMDB Top 10%:

69. I Wish I Had a Girl (1909)
70. It Had to Be You (w/ Aileen Stanley, 1924)

71. Yes! We Have No Bananas (w/ Great White Way Orchestra, 1923)
72. Just As We Used To (1919)
73. There’s No Moon Like the Honeymoon (w/ AJ, 1908)
74. Any Place the Old Flag Flies (1912)
75. The Twentieth Century Rag (1914)
76. Alcoholic Blues (1919)
77. Take Me Up with You, Dearie (w/ HQ, 1909)
78. After You’ve Gone (w/ Gladys Rice, 1919)
79. Ain’t It Funny What a Difference a Few Hours Can Make (1904)
80. The Little Ford Rambled Right Along (1915)

81. Keep on Smiling (w/ HQ, 1908)
82. Streets of New York (1907)
83. Dance of the Grizzly Bear (w/ AQ, 1911)
84. Because I’m Married Now (1907)
85. Any Little Girl That’s a Nice Girl Is the Right Little Girl for Me (w/ the AQ, 1910)
86. The Wedding Glide (w/ AJ, 1912)
87. My Sweetie Went Away (w/ Ed Salle, 1923)
88. Bon Bon Buddy (1908)
89. The Game of Peek-a-Boo (I’d Like to See a Little More of You) (1907)
90. It’s Nice to Have a Sweetheart (w/ AJ, 1907)

91. Dixie Land, I Love You (1909)
92. Stumbling (1922)
93. Yankee Doodle Blues (w/ Ed Smalle, 1922)
94. It’s Great to Be a Soldier Man (1907)
95. Hello Hawaii, How Are You? (1916)
96. I Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight (w/ Henry Burr, 1926)
97. The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick’s Day (w/ HQ, 1909)
98. Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo (Mademoiselle from Armentieres) (w/ Ed Smalle, 1924)
99. Keep on the Sunny Side (1906)
100. Are You from Dixie? ‘Cause I’m from Dixie Too (w/ Irving Kaufman, 1916)

Awards:

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Friday, October 13, 2017

100 years ago: The American Quartet’s “Over There” hit #1

Over There

American Quartet

Writer(s): George M. Cohan (see lyrics here)

First Charted: September 29, 1917

Peak: 19 US, 120 GA, 122 SM, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 2.0 (sheet music)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.05 video, -- streaming

Over There

Nora Bayes

First Charted: November 3, 1917

Peak: 13 US, 120 GA (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 2.0 (sheet music)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.18 video, -- streaming

Awards (American Quartet version):

Awards (Nora Bayes’ version):

About the Song:

George M. Cohan’s “biggest song not written for Broadway” RCG became World War I’s most famous song. DJ He penned the patriotic number after reading in the newspaper that the United States had declared war on Germany. He expanded the opening phrase of “Johnny Get Your Gun,” a popular song from 1886, into “a lyric that is both a call to arms and a vow not to come home till ‘it’s over, over there’.” RCG

Cohan himself introduced the song at Ft. Myers to an audience of soldiers, but it had little impact. However, the response was “overwhelming” when Charles King sang it at the New York City’s Hippodrome Theatre for a Red Cross Benefit. RCG

For the official recording of the song, Cohan specifically requested Nora Bayes. NRR She was a popular vaudeville and Broadway star and former member of the Ziegfeld Follies. NRR She introduced it at a Red Cross war-bond rally, DJ added it to her vaudeville act, and then recorded it. It sold over a million copies RCG and hit #1.

She wasn’t the first to chart with the song, however. In fact, the American Quartet and the Peerless Quartet took it to #1 before she did. The American Quartet’s version was the biggest hit of 1917. CPM The following year, Enrico Caruso also recorded a chart-topping version PM giving “Over There” and “Peg O’ My Heart” the distinction of being the only two songs in history to top the charts four times. Billy Murray and Prince’s Orchestra also recorded top 10 versions of the song.

Resources:

Related Links:

First posted 9/29/2011; last updated 3/20/2023.

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