100 years ago: “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” hit #1

By the Light of the Silvery Moon Billy Murray & the Haydn Quartet

Writer(s): Edward Madden, Gus Edwards (see lyrics here) First Charted: December 1909 Peak: 19 US, 13 GA, 16 SM (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: 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 The song had much the same sentiment as “Shine On, Harvest Moon” from a year earlier. In “Silvery Moon,” the singer wishes for a silvery moon by which to spoon with his girl, hoping he can croon a love song to her and she’ll agree to marry him in June. 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. The song first surfaced in vaudeville in the School Boys and Girls revue. Child star Georgie Price, a member of Gus Edwards, troup of children, sang it. TY2 Lillian Lorraine also interporolated it into the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909. TY2 In 1909 and 1910, three versions of the song charted. The Peerless Quartet and Ada Jones each got to #2, but Billy Murray’s recording with the Haydn Quartet hit #1 and was one of the top five hits of the decade. TY2 On their version, Murray sang the verses, slow and deliberately, and the quartet came in on the chorus. SM As big as their song was – it spent 9 weeks at the summit – it wasn’t the biggest hit for either Murray or the Haydn Quartet. In 1909, the Haydn Quartet peaked at #1 for eleven weeks with “Put on Your Old Grey Bonnett.” Murray’s biggest hit was just around the corner – just a couple months later, his take on “Casey Jones” with the American Quartet would also spend eleven weeks on top. PM “Silvery Moon” proved to have stamina, hitting #12 for Ray Noble in 1942 PM and becoming a glee club and barbershop quartet standard. RCG It was also in the movies Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), The Birth of the Blues (1941), Babes on Broadway (1942), Hello, Frisco, Hello (1943), Sunbonnet Sue (1945), The Jolson Story (1946), Always Leave Them Laughing (1949), and Two Weeks with Love (1950). TY2 In 1953, Doris Day and Gordon MacRae sang the song in the movie musical . Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 29. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 47. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954 (1986). Menomonee Falls, WI; Record Research, Inc. Page 481. Related Links: First posted 4/23/2012; last updated 12/15/2022.

100 years ago: Byron Harlan hit #1 with “School Days”

School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids) Byron G. Harlan

Writer(s): Gus Edwards (m), Will Cobb (w) (see lyrics here) First Charted: May 11, 1907 Peak: 111 US, 15 GA, 19 SM (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 3.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: 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.” DJ The song was introduced by its composer, Gus Edwards, in vaudeville’s School Boys and Girls. The show served as a launching pad for budding talent since it featured a number of child stars, such as Eddie Cantor, George Jessel, Groucho Marx, and Georgie Price. TY2 “School Days” was the final song, “sung by the entire company of teachers and children. This was a trip down memory lane for a mature old couple, Nellie and Joe who return to the site of their old school house, see themselves as a couple of kids once more.” SM Edwards, who has been called “the most important songwriter to come out of vaudeville,” PS was born in Germany and came to the United States with his family when he was eight. He used to sneak into theaters and befriend the vaudeville performers. At the encouragement of the legendary George M. Cohan, Edwards began writing songs despite not knowing how to read or write music. His first was 1898’s “All I Want Is My Black Baby Back” and by the time “School Days’ came about, Edwards was a famous songwriter with hits like “In My Merry Oldsmobile.” PS While entertaining troops headed for Cuba to fight in the Spanish American War, he met Will Cobb. The pair collaborated on a long list of hits, PS among them “School Days.” Byron G. Harlan’s recording of “School Days” went to #1 for 11 weeks, making it the top song of 1907, WHC the biggest hit of Harlan’s career, and “the biggest Tin Pan Alley had seen up till that time.” RCG The 3 million in sheet music sales made it one of the top 20 sellers from the first half of the 20th century. PM Albert Campbell took his 1908 recording to #3. Bing Crosby sang it in 1939’s The Star Maker, a film biopic about Edwards. In 1945’s Sunbonnet Sue, Gale Storm and Phil Regan performed the song. PS Resources: Archive.org: download song DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 169. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) PS ParlorSongs.com Lessons in America’s Popular Music History RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Pages 38-9. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954 (1986). Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 634. WHC Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Record Research, Inc.: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 5 and 14. Related Links: First posted 5/18/2012; last updated 12/15/2022.

100 years ago: “In My Merry Oldsmobile” hit #1

In My Merry Oldsmobile Billy Murray

Writer(s): Vincent Bryan, Gus Edwards (see lyrics here) First Charted: October 14, 1905 Peak: 17 US, 2 GA (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: In 1905, two Oldsmobiles embarked on the first trans-continental automobile race from New York City to Portland, following the route of the Oregon Trail. TY2 This was at a time when the automobile was still a relatively new and unpopular gadget. RA In addition, in parts of the West the drivers faced “bad weather, sickness, wild animals, thirst, accidents and unforeseen breakdowns. TY2 The month-and-a-half journey through mud and rough terrain in the pre-roads era generated daily newspaper coverage on a national level. RA “In My Merry Oldsmobile” was inspired by the event, becoming the “first successful Tin Pan Alley song written about an automobile” RCG and “the defining song for automobile related transportation theme music.” PS Vincent Bryan, who “was considered by Tin Pan Alley as one of the best professional lyricists of his time,” RA “penned the lyrics in the form of a marriage proposal. RCG At times, they sounded like a commercial jingle for Oldsmobile. TY2 The German-born Gus Edwards “composed the rock-like waltz music” RCG Edwards couldn’t read or write music and taught himself to play piano. He wrote his first song in 1898, formed his own music publishing company by 1905, and is known as “one of our greatest vaudevillians.” RA Edwards popularized the song in his vaudeville act. RCG Two versions of the song charted in 1905 – first by Billy Murray (#1) and then Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan (#7). PM In 1927, Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra revived the song. JA Bing Crosby, Les Brown, and Jo Stafford also made well-known recordings of it RCG and it was used in the 1944 movie The Merry Monihans as well the 1948 move musical One Sunday Afternoon. The song served for years as “an unpaid-for commercial for Oldsmobile” RA and was eventually adopted as the manufacturer’s theme song. RA Despite requests from Edwards, he could never convince the company to give him one of their automobiles. DJ 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. PS ParlorSongs.com RA Theodore Raph (1964). The Songs We Sang: A Treasury of American Popular Music. A.S. Barnes and Co., Inc.: New York. Page 316. RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 585. TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Page 27. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954 (1986). Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 528. Related Links: First posted 10/14/2016; last updated 12/14/2022.