Today in Music (1895): “America the Beautiful” published

America the Beautiful Katharine Lee Bates (lyrics), Samuel A. Ward (music)

Writer(s): Katharine Lee Bates (lyrics) and Samuel A. Ward (music) (see lyrics here) Published: July 4, 1895 First Charted: July 11, 1925 Peak (different versions): 8 PM, 42 AC, 58 CW, 98 RB, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 28.74 video, 4.49 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details. Awards (Louise Homer): Awards (Ray Charles):

About the Song: Music historian Steve Sullivan says, “Next to Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ perhaps no patriotic anthem is more powerful and moving than ‘America the Beautiful.’” SS In the 1920s, there was an effort to make it the national anthem before Congress decided on “The Star-Spangled Banner” instead. SS Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, WK was inspired to write the eventual song while on a train trip in 1893 to Colorado that included a stop in Chicago for the 400th anniversary of Columbus coming to America. The original title of her poem was “Pikes Peak” WK but, nearly two years later, when it was published on July 4, 1895 in a Boston church weekly called The Congregationalist, it was rechristened “America.” WK It wasn’t until 1904 that Samuel Augustus Ward, a church organist and choir director at Grace Church in Newark, New Jersey, put it to music. He based it on a melody he composed in 1882 to accompany lyrics for the hymn “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem,” later retitled “Materna.” WK It was finally given the title “America the Beautiful” in 1910. WK Bates continued revising it, publishing the final version in 1911. SS Sadly, Ward died in 1903 and never saw the fame the song gained. The song’s first chart appearance came in 1925 when Louise Homer took it to #8. Since then, the song has charted by Ray Charles (#98, 1972), Charlie Rich (#42 AC, 1976) and and an all-star country collective that included Vince Gill, Brenda Lee, Kenny Rogers, and others (#58, 2001). Sullivan says “the song received its definitive rendition in the magnificently souful performance of Ray Charles.” SS He “believed in the ideals it represented, and he sang it with passion and gospel-fired organ and piano, backed by a choir, and in so doing transformed, broadened, and elevated its meaning.” SS Critic Dave Marsh says Ray turns it “into a gorgeous, ironic, sweet-tempered sermon on the land he loves.” DM Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Katharine Lee Bates DMDB encyclopedia entry for Samuel A. Ward DMDB encyclopedia entry for Ray Charles DMDB encyclopedia entry for Louise Homer DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Pages 627-8. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 565-6. PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. WK Wikipedia First posted 6/24/2024.

Today in Music (1892): “The Old Folks at Home” charted for first time

The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River) Stephen Foster

Writer(s): Stephen Foster (see lyrics here) First Charted: August 13, 1892 Peak: 16 PM (Len Spencer), 2 PM, 17 DF (1900, Vess Ossman) (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 20.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1.68 video, 0.59 streaming (multiple versions)

Awards (overall): Click on award for more details. Awards (Spencer): Awards (Ossman):

About the Song: Stephen Foster was the pre-eminent songwriter of the 19th century in America. The Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee was born in 1826 and published hs first song in 1842. He had his first hit with “Oh! Susanna” in 1848 and “Camptown Races” in 1850. SS His “greatest triumph” was with “The Old Folks at Home,” also known as “Swanee River,” in 1851. Ed P. Christy commissioned the minstrel song to be used by his troupe, Christy’s Minstrels. Christy was credited as the song’s creator on early sheet music printings WM because of a contractual agreement between him and Foster due to the latter’s concer that “an association with minstrel songs might damage his broader ambitions.” SS It meant Foster wasn’t credited (although he received royalties without recognition SS) from what became the most popular song ever published at that time WM with estimates as high as 20 million. PM Foster wouldn’t be credited until the copyright ran out in 1879, at which time he’d been dead sixteen years. SS The melody was likely borrowed from “Annie Laurie” by Lady John Scott, a ballad published in Sir Thomas Moore’s classic Irish Melodies collection. SS Foster wrote most of the lyrics before settling in on the right name for the river in the opening line. His brother suggested the Yazoo River in Mississippi and the Pee Dee River in South Carolina before consulting an atlas and coming up with the Suwannee River in Florida. Foster said, “That’s it exactly!” WK He deliberately misspelled it as “Swanee” to fit the melody. WK “For the first time, the two distinct categories of songs he had previously written, gentell parlor ballads and blackface-dialect numbers, merged into one.” SS The latter style involved writing in an exaggerated dialect to capture the language of the black slaves who worked cotton plantations before the Civil War, glorified antebellum Southern life. SFS “Swanee River” ended up sparking Florida tourism in the 1880s from people eager to see the “symbolic river and idyllic home” described by the song. WM Ironically, Foster himself never visited the state. WM In 1935, Florida named it their state song. The lyrics were revised in 2008 to eliminate racially offensive terms. SFS It should be noted, though, that at the time Foster wrote the song, he was unusually sympathetic in his portrayal of a displaced slave, singing of loneliness and longing. He wrote the song about the slave’s feelings of isolation with enough vagueness that spoke to a wider, white audience. SS The first charted version of the song came more than forty years after its publication when Len Spencer took it to #1 in 1892. It was one of nine versions to chart between 1892 and 1937. Other versions were by the Haydn Quartet (#4, 1904), Louise Homer (#6, 1905), Alma Gluck (#3, 1915), Taylor Trio (#4, 1916), Oscar Seagle (#8, 1919), Jimmie Lunceford (#19, 1936), and Bunny Berigan (#18, 1937). PM However, the highest ranked in Dave’s Music Database is the banjo instrumental by Vess Ossman. He was considered “The King of the Banjo” and “the foremost recorded ragtime musician of the original ragtime era.” PM Resources: SFS South Florida Sun-Sentinel (4/25/2008). “Senate cleans up lyrics of state song” by Linda Kleindienst SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 264-5. WM Wayback Machine PM Joel Whitburn (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Record Research, Inc: Menomonee Falls, WI. Pages 345, 561, and 634. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/24/2020; last updated 12/1/2025.