100 years ago: “By the Beautiful Sea” hit #1

By the Beautiful Sea Heidelberg Quintet

Writer(s): Harold R. Atteridge (words), Harry Carroll (music) (see lyrics here) First Charted: July 15, 1914 Peak: 16 US, 112 GA, 110 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.17 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “This was a story about a happy couple, Joe and Jane who love the summer and anything that Joe suggests, Jane would always think it was best for her, so he’d get his Ford, holler all aboard and off they would go for day out by the beautiful sea…It was only in verse two that their sordid little affair came to light.” SM While extramarital affairs were nothing new, it was “surprising…that the subject was part of a poular song.” TY2 The Stanford Four introduced the song in vaudeville. DJ To publicize the song, the publisher hired a group of boys in sailor suits to perform the song at Coney Island. TY2 The song was further popularized by Muriel Window who integrated the song into the revue The Passing Show of 1914. TY2 It went on to chart three times in 1914. Prince’s Orchestra took the song to #6 and there were chart-topping version by Ada Jones & Billy Watkins as well as by the Heidelberg Quuintet. PM The latter was the first to chart and spent more weeks at #1. “By the Beautiful Sea” was the second #1 song for the Heidelberg Quintet, but their lineup was different than when they hit #1 with “Waiting on the Robert E. Lee.” Billy Murray, Steve Porter, William F. Hooley (all members of the American Quartet as well), and Will Oakland were all still members but John Bieling had been replaced by Robert Armour. “The vocals on this song were dominated by Billy Murray with all the other members joining in background harmonies only. Will Oakland’s high counter tenor voice could not be heard at all.” SM The song was also used in the films The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Coney Island (1943), Atlantic City (1944), and Some Like It Hot (1959). DJ Judy Garland and Gene Kelly performed it in the 1942 movie For Me and My Gal. TY2 Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Heidelberg Quintet 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) TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Pages 67-8. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 481. First posted 2/27/2023.

 

100 years ago: “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” hit #1

Waiting for the Robert E. Lee Heidelberg Quintet

Writer(s): L. Wolfe Gilbert (words), Lewis F. Muir (music) (see lyrics here) First Charted: September 15, 1912 Peak: 16 US, 13 GA, 114 SM (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.02 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Lyricist L. Wolfe Gilbert was inspired to write this “ragtime classic” TY2 after watching men unloading freight in Baton Rouge, Louisiana from the steamboat SS named after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee which transported cotton along the Mississippi River. SM A Cincinnati boat of the same name gained headlines in 1870 when it beat the Natchez VI in a race from New Orleans to St. Louis in a few hours shy of four days. SS The up-and-coming singer Al Jolson introduced the song at one of his Winter Garden concerts in New York and it was “an immediate crowd-pleaser.” SS He also integrated it into his show The Whirl of Society, which opened in March 1912, but didn’t record the song until 1946 for the soundtrack to The Al Jolson Story. SS Vaudevillian singer Ruth Roye DJ and Eddie Cantor SS also helped popularize the song. The song charted three times in 1912 by the Heidelberg Quintet (#1), Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan (#3), and Dolly Connolly (#4). It was one of only eight chart entries for the Heidelberg Quintet and their first of two #1’s. PM The group consisted of Billy Murray, John Bieling, Steve Porter, and William Hooley – who all recorded as the American Quartet – plus Will Oakland. SS The name grew out of the group’s first recording session in which they sang the unreleasd “Heidelberg Stein Song.” SS This was one of the earliest efforts at recording a quintet because of the difficulties in positiong five singers around the recording horn and maintaining a balance among the voices. SS The results here were this “delightfully, rousing ragtime-flavored number bursint with energy and warm nostalgia.” SS The song was also performed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1939 movie The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle and again in 1941 by Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney for Babes on Broadway. SS It has also appeared in The Jazz Singer (1927), Applause (1929), Hellzapoppin’ (1941), Cairo (1942), and Lake Placid Serenade (1944). TY2 In 1952, a group of composers and musicians voted this the best song of the first half of the 20th century. SS The song was also one of the first ten inductees in 1968 to the American Music Hall of Fame, which became the Songwriters Hall of Fame. SS Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Heidelberg Quintet DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 204. SM Sharon Mawer Charts (1900-1968) SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 437. TY2 Don Tyler (2007). Hit Songs, 1900-1955. McFarland & Company, Inc.: Jefferson, North Carolina. Pages 59-60. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 206 and 603. First posted 2/26/2023.