100 years ago: Billy Murray hit #1 with “Pretty Baby”

Pretty Baby Billy Murray

Writer(s): Gus Kahn (words), Tony Jackson (music), Egbert Van Alstyne (music) (see lyrics here) First Charted: September 1, 1916 Peak: 11 US, 112 GA, 112 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.19 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: This “delightful, jaunty little song” TY2 was first performed in 1912 by Tony Jackson SM who wrote the song for his boyfriend. TY2 According to Donald, the son of lyricist Gus Kahn, his father saw Jackson perform it at a black nightclub in Chicago. Kahn and the song’s composer, Egbert Van Alstyne, convinced Jackson to sell the song to them. Other accounts have suggested the tune was stolen or that Kahn and Van Alstyne were hired to rework it. TY2 The song was then introduced by Dolly Hackett in the Broadway show Passing Show of 1916. DJ It was also featured that year in the Broadway revue A World of Pleasure and the London show Houp La. SM It would later be featured in the musicals Applause (1929), She Done Him Wrong (1933), Rose of Washington Square (1939), and Coney Island (1943). It was also used in biopics for Ted Lewis (Is Everybody Happy?, 1943) Nora Bayes (Shine on Harvest Moon, 1944), Gus Kahn (I’ll See You in My Dreams, 1952), and Eva Tanguay (The I-Don’t-Care-Girl, 1953). The song also surfaced in Broadway Rhythm (1944). TY2 Billy Murray had the hit recording with the song that same year, taking it to #1. PM This was his seventeenth of 18 chart-toppers as a solo act. PM With 169 chart entries from 1903 to 1927, he was the “most sensational record seller of the entire pre-1920 pioneer era.” PM He had another 44 hits with Ada Jones from 1907 to 1922; six of those reached #1. PM As for Kahn, the Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee would go on to write “Ain’t We Got Fun?” (Van & Schenck, #1, 1921), “Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’bye)” (Al Jolson, #1, 1923), “It Had to Be You” (Isham Jones, #1, 1924), “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby” (Gene Austin, #1, 1925), “Makin’ Whoopee” (Eddie Cantor, #2, 1929), and “Dream a Little Dream of Me” (Wayne King, #1, 1931). Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 160. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 87. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 238-39, 327-33, and 568. Related Links: First posted 3/18/2023.

100 years ago: Henry Burr “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” hit #1

In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree Henry Burr (as Irving Gillette)

Writer(s): Egbert Van Alstyne (music), Harry H. Williams (lyrics) (see lyrics here) First Charted: April 22, 1904 Peak: 17 US, 14 GA, 18 SM (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.12 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Composer Egbert Van Alstyne and lyricist Harry H. Williams worked as song pluggers for Remick, the famous music-publishing house, when they wrote “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree,” TY2 their biggest hit. DJ The previous year, the pair wrote “Navajo,” which Billy Murray took to the top of the charts. They were inspired when they visited Central Park in New York – which, incidentally, has no apple trees. TY2 The song can “be characterized as a highly sentimental tune…about a lost love.” WK The full, four-verse version of the song reveals that the couple are no longer together because she died. However, he sings about hoping to see her again, meaning in the afterlife. SM The first charted version of the song came in 1905 by Henry Burr. He only sang two of the verses and then ended with two choruses, so his version doesn’t make it clear that she died. SM Burr was born Harry Haley McClaskey in Canada in 1882 and recorded “Apple Tree” under the name of Irving Gillette. That version topped the charts for seven weeks. This was his second trip to the top of the charts. From 1903 to 1922, he reached the pinnacle twenty four times as a solo act and in duets with Albert Campbell. Burr was “the #1 ballad singer of recorded music’s 1890-1930 pioneer era.” PM He sang on on “some twelve thousand recordings, far more than any other vocalist in history.” PM There were other charted version in 1905 by Albert Campbell (#2), the Haydn Quartet (#2) ,and Arthur Pryor’s Band (#9) all charted with versions of the song. It experienced a revival in 1933 when Duke Ellington recorded the song and took it to #13. Louis Armstrong recorded the song with the Mills Brothers in 1937, Alma Cogan tackled it in 1962, and Bing Crosby recorded it as part of a medley that same year. WK Billy Murray and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott recorded parodies of the song. WK Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 101. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Pages 27-8. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954 (1986). Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 65-70. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 12/8/2022; last updated 12/15/2022.