Showing posts with label Paul Whiteman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul Whiteman. Show all posts

Saturday, January 28, 2023

USA: #1 Pop Songs, 1920-1929

USA’s #1 Pop Songs:

1920-1929

These are the #1 pop songs on the United States pop charts from 1920 to 1929. Songs could have hit #1 on either of these charts:

The date indicates the song’s first appearance at #1, regardless of which chart it was. The act associated with the song is then listed. The Gardner book does not indicate specific artists, so the artists identified here are those which also hit #1 on another chart, are the highest-ranked version according to Dave’s Music Database, or are spotlighted as the top version by Gardner.

Then come the letter codes indicating which charts the song topped. The number following that is the number of weeks at #1. The Gardner charts are monthly and not weekly so the #of weeks has been adjusted by multiplying the song’s number of months at #1 by 4. Meanwhile the Sharon Mawer charts are bi-weekly (dated the first and fifteenth of the month) so to reflect a more accurate depiction of how many weeks the song spent at #1, the original # was doubled.

Click here to access a full list of #1 songs from 1890 to present. See other chart-based lists here.

1920:

  1. 1/15: Elizabeth Spencer & Charles Hart “Let the Rest of the World Go By” (GA: 12, SM: 8)
  2. 1/17: Al Jolson “I’ve Got My Captain Working for Me Now” (PM: 2)
  3. 1/31: Ben Selvin “Dardanella” (PM: 13, SM: 6, GA: 4)
  4. 5/1: Ted Lewis “When My Baby Smiles at Me” (PM: 7, SM: 2)
  5. 5/1: Edith Day “Alice Blue Gown” (PM: 1)
  6. 5/8: Al Jolson “Swanee” (PM: 9, SM: 4, GA: 4)
  7. 6/15: Henry Burr “Rose of Washington Square” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  8. 7/15: Art Hickman “Hold Me” (GA: 8, PM: 3)
  9. 9/15: John Steel “The Love Nest” (GA: 8, PM: 4, SM: 4)
  10. 9/25: Marion Harris “St. Louis Blues” (PM: 3)
  11. 10/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Whispering” (PM: 11, SM: 10, GA: 8)
  12. 10/16: Art Hickman “The Love Nest” (PM: 2)
  13. 12/11: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “The Japanese Sandman” (PM: 2)

1921:

  1. 1/1: Al Jolson “Avalon” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  2. 1/29: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Wang Wang Blues” (PM: 6)
  3. 2/1: Gene Rodemich “Margie” (GA: 8, SM: 8)
  4. 2/28: Eddie Cantor “Margie” (GA: 8, PM: 5)
  5. 2/28: Al Jolson “Yoo-Hoo” (GA: 4)
  6. 4/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Bright Eyes” (SM: 6, GA: 4)
  7. 4/16: Al Jolson “O-H-I-O (O-My! O!)” (PM: 4)
  8. 5/14: Marion Harris “Look for the Silver Lining” (PM: 3)
  9. 5/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “My Mammy” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 5)
  10. 7/1: Van & Schenck “Ain’t We Got Fun?” (SM: 6, GA: 4, PM: 2)
  11. 7/8: Nora Bayes “Make Believe” (PM: 3)
  12. 7/30: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Cherie” (PM: 6)
  13. 8/15: Ted Lewis “All by Myself” (SM: 10, GA: 8, PM: 4)
  14. 8/31: Billy Jones as Victor Roberts “Peggy O’Neil” (GA: 1)
  15. 9/24: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Song of India” (PM: 5)
  16. 11/1: Ted Lewis “Ma, He’s Making Eyes at Me” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  17. 11/26: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Say It with Music” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 5)
  18. 12/31: Isham Jones “Wabash Blues” (PM: 6, SM: 2)

1922:

  1. 2/1: Al Jolson “April Showers” (PM: 11, SM: 2)
  2. 2/15: Ray Miller “The Sheik of Araby” (SM: 8, GA: 4)
  3. 3/25: Fanny Brice “My Man” (PM: 1)
  4. 4/15: Ray Miller “On the Gin-Gin-Ginny Shore” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  5. 5/1: Al Jolson “Angel Child” (PM: 5, GA: 4, SM: 4)
  6. 6/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Three O’Clock in the Morning” (SM: 14, GA: 12, PM: 8)
  7. 6/10: Isham Jones “On the Alamo” (PM: 4)
  8. 7/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Stumbling” (SM: 8, GA: 8, PM: 6)
  9. 7/8: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Do It Again” (PM: 2)
  10. 9/2: Ernest Hare & Billy Jones “Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean” (GA: 8, PM: 2)
  11. 9/16: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Hot Lips” (PM: 6)
  12. 10/28: Gallagher & Shean “Mr. Gallagher & Mr. Shean” (GA: 8, PM: 6, SM: 4)
  13. 12/9: Henry Burr “My Buddy” (SM: 2, PM: 1)

1923:

  1. 1/1: Van & Schenck “Carolina in the Morning” (GA: 8, SM: 8, PM: 3)
  2. 1/6: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise” (PM: 1)
  3. 1/13: Al Jolson “Toot Toot Tootsie (Goo’bye)” (PM: 4)
  4. 3/1: Nora Bayes “Lovin’ Sam, the Sheik of Alabam’” (SM: 2)
  5. 3/15: Paul Specht “When Hearts Are Young” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  6. 4/1: Marion Harris “Aggravatin’ Papa” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  7. 4/7: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” (PM: 7)
  8. 5/1: Sophie Tucker “You’ve Got to See Mama Ev’ry Night or You Can’t See Mama at All” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  9. 5/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Bambalina” (SM: 2, PM: 1)
  10. 5/26: Carl Fenton “Love Sends a Little Gift of Roses” (PM: 3)
  11. 6/1: Isham Jones “Who’s Sorry Now” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  12. 6/23: Art Landry “Dreamy Melody” (PM: 3)
  13. 7/1: Billy Jones “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (SM: 10, GA: 8, PM: 5)
  14. 7/14: Bessie Smith “Down Hearted Blues” (PM: 4)
  15. 7/31: Ben Selvin “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (GA: 8, PM: 2)
  16. 8/11: Isham Jones “Swingin’ Down the Lane” (PM: 6)
  17. 9/15: Henry Burr “Just a Girl That Men Forget” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  18. 10/1: Billy Murray & Ed Smalle “That Old Gang of Mine” (GA: 8, SM: 8, PM: 6)
  19. 12/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “I Love You” (SM: 10, GA: 8)
  20. 12/22: Eddie Cantor “No, No, Nora” (PM: 2)

1924:

  1. 1/5: Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians “Sleep” (PM: 5)
  2. 1/26: Arthur Gibbs “Charleston” (PM: 1)
  3. 2/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Linger Awhile” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 4)
  4. 2/16: Wendell Hall “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’” (GA: 8, PM: 6, SM: 4)
  5. 3/29: Ted Weems “Somebody Stole My Gal” (PM: 5)
  6. 4/1: Al Jolson “California, Here I Come!” (PM: 6, SM: 6, GA: 4)
  7. 6/15: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “What’ll I Do?” (SM: 16, GA: 12, PM: 5)
  8. 7/19: Isham Jones “Spain” (PM: 2)
  9. 9/6: Isham Jones “It Had to Be You” (PM: 5)
  10. 10/11: Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians “Memory Lane” (PM: 5)
  11. 10/15: International Novelty Orchestra with Billy Murray “Charley, My Boy” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  12. 11/15: Al Jolson “I Wonder What’s Become of Sally?” (GA: 12, SM: 8, PM: 3)
  13. 12/6: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Somebody Loves Me” (PM: 5)

1925:

  1. 1/10: Al Jolson “All Alone” (SM: 12, GA: 8, PM: 5)
  2. 2/7: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “All Alone” (PM: 3)
  3. 2/28: Marion Harris “Tea for Two” (PM: 3)
  4. 3/21: Johm McCormack “All Alone” (PM: 2)
  5. 4/4: Isham Jones with Ray Miller’s Orchestra “I’ll See You in My Dreams” (PM: 7, GA: 4, SM: 4)
  6. 5/15: Blossom Seeley “Alabamy Bound” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  7. 5/23: Ted Lewis “O! Katharina” (PM: 1)
  8. 5/30: Vernon Dalhart “The Prisoner’s Song” (PM: 12, GA: 8, SM: 8)
  9. 6/15: Gene Austin “Yearning Just for You” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  10. 7/4: Ben Bernie “Sweet Georgia Brown” (PM: 5)
  11. 7/15: Eddie Cantor “If You Knew Susie” (GA: 8, PM: 5, SM: 4)
  12. 8/15: Fred Waring “Collegiate” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  13. 9/12: Gene Austin with Billy Carpenter “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby” (SM: 8, PM: 7, GA: 4)
  14. 10/31: Ben Selvin “Oh, How I Miss You Tonight” (PM: 3)
  15. 11/15: Isham Jones “Remember” (SM: 6, GA: 4, PM: 1)
  16. 11/21: Ben Selvin “Manhattan” (PM: 4)
  17. 11/30: John McCormack “Moonlight and Roses Bring Mem’ries of You” (GA: 1)

1926:

  1. 2/13: George Olsen “Who?” (PM: 6)
  2. 3/15: Cliff Edwards “Dinah” (SM: 2)
  3. 3/27: Ben Bernie “Sleepy Time Gal” (PM: 4)
  4. 4/17: Al Jolson “I’m Sitting on Top of the World” (PM: 2)
  5. 4/30: George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice, & Edward Joyce “Always” (GA: 12, SM: 10, PM: 3)
  6. 4/30: Vincent Lopez “Always” (GA: 12, PM: 2)
  7. 5/22: Gene Austin “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” (PM: 1)
  8. 6/15: Gene Austin with Fran Frey “Horses” (SM: 4)
  9. 6/19: “Whispering” Jack Smith “Gimme a Lil’ Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?” (PM: 2)
  10. 7/3: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra with Franklyn Baur “Valencia (A Song of Spain)” (PM: 11, GA: 8, SM: 4)
  11. 7/31: Al Jolson “I’d Climb the Highest Mountain if I Knew I’d Find You” (GA: 4)
  12. 9/4: Gene Austin “Bye Bye, Blackbird” (GA: 4, SM: 4, PM: 3)
  13. 10/2: Al Jolson “When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin’ Along” (PM: 2)
  14. 10/15: Jan Garber with Benny Davis “Baby Face” (PM: 6, SM: 6, GA: 4)
  15. 11/27: Johnny Marvin “Breezin’ Along with the Breeze” (PM: 2)
  16. 12/1: Johnny Hamp “Black Bottom” (SM: 2)
  17. 12/11: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “The Birth of the Blues” (PM: 4)
  18. 12/15: Henry Burr “Because I Love You” (GA: 4, SM: 2)

1927:

  1. 1/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra with Jack Fulton “In a Little Spanish Town” (SM: 10, GA: 8, PM: 8)
  2. 3/5: Sophie Tucker with Ted Lewis “Some of These Days” (PM: 5)
  3. 3/15: Ben Selvin “Blue Skies” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 2)
  4. 4/9: Gene Austin “Tonight You Belong to Me” (PM: 3)
  5. 5/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “It All Depends on You” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  6. 5/14: Ben Bernie “Ain’t She Sweet?” (PM: 4)
  7. 6/1: Nick Lucas “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  8. 6/11: George Olsen “At Sundown (When Love Is Calling Me Home)” (PM: 3)
  9. 7/1: Roger Wolfe Kahn “Russian Lullaby” (GA: 4, SM: 4, PM: 3)
  10. 7/2: Moran & Mack “Two Black Crows – Parts 1 & 2 (The Early Bird Catches the Worm)” (PM: 5)
  11. 8/1: “Whispering” Jack Smith “Me and My Shadow” (GA: 4, PM: 4, SM: 4)
  12. 8/6: Gene Austin “Forgive Me” (PM: 1)
  13. 9/1: Guy Lombardo “Charmaine!” (SM: 10, GA: 8, PM: 7)
  14. 11/15: Ben Selvin “Miss Annabelle Lee (Who’s Wonderful, Who’s Marvelous)” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  15. 11/19: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “My Blue Heaven” (PM: 1)
  16. 11/26: Red Nichols “Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider” (PM: 3)
  17. 12/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Just a Memory” (GA: 4, SM: 4)
  18. 12/17: Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (PM: 13, GA: 8, SM: 8)

1928:

  1. 3/1: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Among My Souvenirs” (SM: 6, GA: 4, PM: 4)
  2. 4/14: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Together” (GA: 4, PM: 2, SM: 2)
  3. 4/28: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Ol’ Man River” (PM: 1)
  4. 5/1: Gene Austin “Ramona” (GA: 12, SM: 12, PM: 8)
  5. 5/5: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Ramona” (GA: 12, PM: 3)
  6. 7/21: Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians “Laugh, Clown, Laugh!” (PM: 1)
  7. 7/28: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “My Angel (Angela Mia)” (GA: 8, PM: 6)
  8. 8/1: Vincent Lopez “My Angel (Angela Mia)” (GA: 8, SM: 8)
  9. 9/8: Gene Austin “Jeannine (I Dream of Lilac Time)” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 5)
  10. 10/13: Cliff Edwards as Ukelele Ike “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (PM: 1)
  11. 10/20: Al Jolson “Sonny Boy” (PM: 12, GA: 8, SM: 8)
  12. 12/1: Al Jolson “There’s a Rainbow Round My Shoulder” (PM: 2)

1929:

  1. 1/15: Ben Selvin with Jack Palmer “You’re the Cream in My Coffee” (SM: 2)
  2. 1/26: Guy Lombardo with Carmen Lombardo “Sweethearts on Parade” (GA: 4, SM: 4, PM: 3)
  3. 2/16: Gene Austin “Carolina Moon” (PM: 7, GA: 4, SM: 4)
  4. 3/1: Ruth Etting “I’ll Get by As Long As I Have You” (SM: 2)
  5. 3/23: George Olsen with Ethel Sutta “A Precious Little Thing Called Love” (PM: 2, SM: 4)
  6. 4/15: Rudy Vallee “Weary River” (GA: 4, SM: 2)
  7. 4/20: Rudy Vallee “Honey” (PM: 8, SM: 2)
  8. 5/31: Leo Reisman “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” (GA: 8, PM: 4, SM: 4)
  9. 7/1: Bob Haring with the Copley Plaza Orchestra “Pagan Love Song” (GA: 8, SM: 8, PM: 4)
  10. 8/10: Cliff Edwards as Ukelele Ike “Singin’ in the Rain” (PM: 3)
  11. 8/31: Al Jolson “Little Pal” (PM: 5)
  12. 9/1: Ethel Waters “Am I Blue?” (GA: 8, SM: 6, PM: 2)
  13. 10/15: Nick Lucas “Tip Toe Through the Tulips” (SM: 12, PM: 10, GA: 8)
  14. 12/28: Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra “Great Day” (PM: 2)

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First posted 1/28/2023.

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Saturday, October 22, 2022

Top 100 Songs from 1920-1929

Top 100 Songs of the Decade:

1920-1929

These are the top 100 songs from the 1920s 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. Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues” (1925)
2. Al Jolson “Swanee” (1920)
3. Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (1927)
4. Thomas “Fats” Waller “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (1929)
5. Paul Whiteman “Whispering” (1920)
6. Al Jolson "April Showers” (1922)
7. Marion Harris “Tea for Two” (1925)
8. Vernon Dalhart “The Prisoner’s Song” (1925)
9. Ben Selvin “Dardanella” (1920)
10. Isham Jones “It Had to Be You” (1924)

11. Paul Whiteman with Bing Crosby “Ol’ Man River” (1928)
12. Cliff Edwards “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (1928)
13. George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice & Edward Joyce “Always” (1926)
14. Al Jolson “Sonny Boy” (1928)
15. Ben Selvin “Blue Skies” (1927)
16. Van & Schenck “Ain’t We Got Fun?” (1921)
17. Gertrude Lawrence “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1927)
18. Paul Whiteman” Three O’Clock in the Morning” (1922)
19. Ben Bernie “Sweet Georgia Brown” (1925)
20. Nick Lucas “Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips with Me” (1929)

21. Paul Whiteman with George Gershwin “Rhapsody in Blue” (1924)
22. Van & Schenck “Carolina in the Morning” (1923)
23. Gene Austin “My Melancholy Baby” (1928)
24. Al Jolson with Isham Jones “California, Here I Come” (1924)
25. Bessie Smith “Down Hearted Blues” (1923)
26. Gene Austin “Bye Bye, Blackbird” (1926)
27. Gene Austin with Billy Carpenter “Yes Sir! That’s My Baby” (1925)
28. Marion Harris “The Man I Love” (1928)
29. Paul Whiteman “My Mammy” (1921)
30. Cliff Edwards “Singin’ in the Rain” (1929)

31. Billy Jones “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (1923)
32. Eddie Cantor “If You Knew Susie Like I Know Susie” (1925)
33. Wendall Hall “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’” (1924)
34. Paul Whiteman with Franklyn Baur “Valencia (A Song of Spain)” (1926)
35. Ben Selvin “Manhattan” (1925)
36. Paul Whiteman “What’ll I Do?” (1924)
37. Eddie Cantor “Makin’ Whoopee” (1929)
38. Eddie Cantor “Margie” (1921)
39. Paul Whiteman “The Japanese Sandman” (1920)
40. Isham Jones with Ray Miller & Frank Bessinger “I’ll See You in My Dreams” (1925)

41. Ben Bernie with Scrappy Lambert & Billy Hillpot “Ain’t She Sweet?” (1927)
42. Paul Whiteman “Somebody Loves Me” (1924)
43. Arthur Gibbs & His Gang “Charleston” (1924)
44. Fanny Brice “My Man (Mon Homme)” (1922)
45. Gene Austin with Nat Shilkret & Viola Klaiss “Ramona” (1928)
46. Al Jolson “All Alone” (1925)
47. Paul Whiteman with Jack Fulton, Charles Gaylord, & Austin Young “The Birth of the Blues” (1926)
48. Al Jolson “Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Goo’bye)” (1922)
49. Marion Harris “Look for the Silver Lining” (1921)
50. Whisperin’ Jack Smith “Me and My Shadow” (1927)

51. George Olsen “Who?” (1926)
52. Jan Garber with Benny Davis “Baby Face” (1926)
53. Ruth Etting “Love Me or Leave Me” (1929)
54. Henry Burr “My Buddy” (1922)
55. Isham Jones “Wabash Blues” (1921)
56. Ted Lewis & His Band “When My Baby Smiles at Me” (1920)
57. Ethel Waters “Am I Blue?” (1929)
58. Jimmie Rodgers “Blue Yodel #1 (T for Texas)” (1928)
59. Ray Miller & His Orchestra “The Sheik of Araby” (1922)
60. Ted Lewis “All by Myself” (1921)

61. Al Jolson “I’m Sitting on Top of the World” (1926)
62. Paul Whiteman “Wang Wang Blues” (1920)
63. Ted Weems “Somebody Stole My Gal” (1924)
64. Mamie Smith & Her Jazz Hounds “Crazy Blues” (1920)
65. Ben Selvin “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” (1922)
66. Ed Gallagher & Al Shean “Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean – ‘Positively, Mr. Gallagher?’” (1922)
67. Guy Lombardo with Weston Vaughan “Charmaine!” (1927)
68. Louis Armstrong “West End Blues” (1928)
69. Billy Murray with Ed Smalle “That Old Gang of Mine” (1923)
70. Fanny Brice “Second Hand Rose” (1922)

71. Charles Harrison “I’ll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time” (1920)
72. Paul Whiteman “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” (1923)
73. Paul Whiteman “Stumbling” (1922)
74. Rudy Vallee “Honey” (1929)
75. Paul Whiteman “Say It with Music” (1921)
76. Gene Austin “Carolina Moon” (1929)
77. Fred Waring with Tom Waring “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life” (1928)
78. Gene Austin with Nat Shilkret’s Orchestra “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” (1926)
79. Isham Jones “Swingin’ Down the Lane” (1923)
80. Marion Harris “I’m Just Wild about Harry” (1922)

81. Paul Whiteman with Jack Fulton, Charles Gaylord, & Austin Young “Among My Souvenirs” (1928)
82. Al Jolson “When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along” (1926)
83. Ben Bernie with Arthur Fields “Sleepy Time Gal” (1926)
84. John Steel “The Love Nest” (1920)
85. The Carter Family “Wildwood Flower” (1928)
86. Louise Homer “America the Beautiful” (1925)
87. Maurice Chevalier “Louise” (1929)
88. Benny Krueger “I Cried for You” (1923)
89. Paul Whiteman with the Rhythm Boys “Side by Side” (1927)
90. Paul Whiteman “Linger Awhile” (1924)

91. Paul Whiteman “Hot Lips (He's Got Hot Lips When He Plays Jazz)” (1922)
92. Helen Kane with Leonard Joy’s Orchestra “I Wanna Be Loved by You” (1928)
93. Vincent Lopez “I Want to Be Happy” (1924)
94. Al Jolson “Avalon” (1920)
95. Peerless Quartet “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” (1922)
96. Ben Pollack with Franklyn Baur “Sweet Sue, Just You” (1928)
97. Paul Whiteman with Jack Fulton “Lover, Come Back to Me” (1929)
98. Paul Whiteman “Oh, Lady Be Good” (1925)
99. Aileen Stanley “Everybody Loves My Baby” (1925)
100. Leo Reisman with Ran Weeks “With a Song in My Heart” (1929)

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First posted 4/4/2012; last updated 10/22/2022.

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Friday, November 26, 2021

100 years ago: Paul Whiteman “Say It with Music” hit #1

Say It with Music

Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra

Writer(s): Irving Berlin (see lyrics here)

First Charted: November 21, 1921

Peak: 15 US, 12 GA, 13 SM (Click for codes to 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:

Irving Berlin’s “Say It with Music” originated in the 1921 Music Box Revue. The “exquisitely beautiful theater” TY2 opened that year on Broadway and both it and the revues that ran from 1921 to 1925 were products of Irving Berlin. TY2

It was performed originally as a duet by Wilda Bennett and Joe Santley and got a lukewarm reception. Part of the reason may have been the simple staging because Berlin wanted the focus to be on the song itself, “but the audience, apparently, wanted spectacle.” TY2 However, New York Times critic Alexander Woollcott said of the production that Berlin “has written only one real song. It is called ‘Say It with Music,’ and by February you will have heard it so often that you will gladly shoot…any one who so much as hums it in your hearing.’” TY2

Indeed, the song about what music meant to Berlin did eventually connect with his audience, showing how much “music is a language lovers understand.” SM It even became the theme song for thre rest of the Music Box revues. SM It also became the theme song for a BBC radio program called The Music Goes Round, which ran for 36 years until Desmond Carrington retired at the age of 90. SF

The biggest chart success for the song was the instrumental version by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra. Other chart versions were by Ben Selvin (#6, 1921), John Steel (#11, 1922), and the Columbians (#12, 1922). PM Ethel Merman performed the song for the 1938 movie Alexander’s Ragtime Band. It has also been performed by Pat Boone, Dick Haymes & Carmen Cavallaro, and Jack Payne. It was the signature song for Payne and it was his version played on the final broadcast of The Music Goes Round. SF

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First posted 1/28/2023.

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Friday, December 11, 2020

Today in Music (1920): Paul Whiteman hit #1 with “The Japanese Sandman”

The Japanese Sandman

Paul Whiteman

Writer(s): Richard A. Whiting (music), Ray Egan (words) (see lyrics here)

First Charted: November 13, 1920

Peak: 12 PM, 2 GA (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 1.0 sheet music, 3.0 total

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.29 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

“During the ’20s, transportation was still primitive enough that to most people the Orient was excitingly exotic and distant. Tin Pan Alley adapted authentic Far Eastern music to appeal to Americans, who accepted it as genuine.” TY2 “The song is about a sandman from Japan who exchanges yesterdays for tomorrows. By doing so…“he’ll bring you tomorrow, just to start a life anew.” WK

“The first verse of the song asks us to stretch our imaginations ‘for the moment and come with me…over the western sea.’ There we will find a Japanese lady singing a lullyaby to her baby. The chorus continues by telling us the ‘Japanese Sandman’ is ‘sneaking on with the dew’ and ‘taking ‘every sorrow of the day that is through.’ This sandman is ‘just an old second hand man trading new days for old.’” TY2

Paul Whiteman’s instrumental recording of the song was the first to chart and the most successful, reaching #1 in 1920. “The Japanese Sandman” was the flip side of “Whispering,” Whiteman’s first chart entry. The songs “established Paul Whiteman and his orchestra as major show business personalities.” TY2 Whiteman was “the most popular bandleader of the pre-swing era” PM charting more than 200 songs from 1920 to 1954. Both songs went to #1 – a feat Whiteman would accomplish thirty more times. PM

There were other charted versions by Nora Bayes (#7, 1921), Ben Selvin (#15, 1921), and Benny Goodman (#10, 1935). PM Although Whiteman’s version charted before Bayes, she first popularized the song on vaudeville. TY2 The song gained attention again in 1967 when it was featured in the movie musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, starring Julie Andrews. It has also been featured in Destination Tokyo (1940), Belles on Their Toes (1952), They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. WK

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First posted 5/13/2025.

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Sunday, November 22, 2020

Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Album Inductees (Nov. 2020)

Originally posted 11/22/2020.

January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog. To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. This month marks the eighth group of album inductees. These are the top albums of material recorded prior to 1950. Albums previously inducted which would have been on this list include Bing Crosby’s Merry Christmas, Robert Johnson’s The Complete Recordings, Al Jolson’s Songs He Made Famous, and South Pacific cast album.

See the full list of album inductees here.

Louis Armstrong The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (box set: 1925-28)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

“Jazz starts here.” BL “Between 1925 and 1929, Armstrong invented scat singing, defined swing and introduced the jazz solo.” BL “This 4-CD set represents the ‘Rosetta Stone of Jazz’,” JM featuring more than 80 songs, including “West End Blues,” a song which rates in the top 1%, and 10 more top-20 hits. The album is in the National Recording Registry. Read more.

Henry Burr Anthology: The Original King of Pop (compilation: 1903-28)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

Burr was “the most popular ballad singer” AR in the “acoustical, pre-[Bing] Crosby, pre-crooner era.” AMG This collection follows “Burr’s career from one of his earliest recordings, made in 1903” AZ “when disc technology was still in its primitive stages, and ends in 1928, during the early electrical recording era.” AR He was “a major influence on Al Jolson, Rudy Vallée, and other pre-Crosby favorites.” AMG This set includes “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree,” “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now,” “M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me),” “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight,” and “My Buddy,” which were all #1 songs that also rank in the the top 1%. Read more.

Duke Ellington The Blanton-Webster Band (box set: 1939-42)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

Ellington is “perhaps the single most important creative talent in American popular music history.” JW This set “contains the master takes of all 66 selections recorded by…[his band] during what many historians consider its peak period.” SY It may be “the greatest creative period by any single artist in jazz history.” MG It features more than a dozen top-10 R&B hits from the 1940s, including five consecutive #1 songs and the Grammy Hall of Fame inductee “Take the ‘A’ Train,” which is also featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era. The album is in the National Recording Registry. Read more.

George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Dubose Heyward (composers) Porgy and Bess (show: 1935)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

This “American folk opera” WK started as a novel and then became a play. The story focuses on “African American life…in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s.” WK It “is admired for Gershwin’s innovative synthesis of European orchestral techniques with American jazz and folk music idioms.” WK Billie Holiday’s recording of the show’s song “Summertime” is in the DMDB Hall of Fame. Read more.

Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert (live: 1938)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

Goodman, known as “The King of Swing,” was “the first real jazz musician to capture a mass bourgeois white audience in America” AZ and the first to stage a full jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. The result is “one of the greatest concerts ever captured on record.” AMG The show featured performances of “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” “Don’t Be That Way,” and “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing),” all ranked in the top 1% of songs. The latter is also in the DMDB Hall of Fame. Read more.

Glenn Miller Glenn Miller (compilation: 1939-42)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

This collection was released just months after Miller’s airplane went down in the English Channel. It logged sixteen weeks atop the album chart over the next three years. It includes “In the Mood,” which is featured in the DMDB book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era. That song, as well as “Tuxedo Junction” and “Moonlight Serenade,” also rank in the DMDB’s list of top 100 big band songs and are in the top 1% of all songs. Read more.

Billy Murray Anthology: The Denver Nightingale (compilation: 1903-40)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

He was “the best-selling recording artist of the first quarter of the 20th century, but his name and work had fallen into obscurity before his death in 1954.” AMG This compilation is every bit as crucial to understanding music of the 20th century as the Beatles’ One and Elvis Presley’s 30 #1 Hits. 17 of the songs on this set reached #1. That includes the classics Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis,” “In My Merry Oldsmobile,” “Yankee Doodle Boy,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “You're a Grand Old Flag,” and “By the Light of the Silvery Moon.” all of which are featured in the Dave’s Music Database book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era. Read more.

Charley Patton Founder of the Delta Blues (compilation: 1929-34)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

Patton “was the key figure in the transition between traditional folk and what came to be known as the Mississippi Delta blues.” FH The genre “had an enormous impact…influencing everyone from The Rolling Stones to Cassandra Wilson.” NM “The title of founder might not be exactly accurate” LG but “he was one of the first to be recorded.” NM He sang “in a rough voice that stormed with turmoil. His guitar picking was…skillfully nuanced in expression and, above all, rhythmically imperative.” FH This collection, a Blues Hall of Fame inductee, features “Pony Blues,” which is in the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Recording Registry. Read more.

Bessie Smith The Essential (compilation: 1923-33)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

This collection works its way through Smith’s entire career, from her very first recording session on February 15, 1923 through her final session on November 24, 1933. DA The Empress of the Blues “could sing it all, from the lowdown moan of ‘St. Louis Blues’ and ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out’ to her torch treatment of the jazz standard ‘After You’ve Gone.’” CK She was “one of the first true crossover aritsts.” LG Read more.

Various Artists (edited by Harry Smith) Anthology of American Folk Music (box set: 1923-32)

Inducted November 2020 as “Top Albums of Material Recorded Before 1950.”

This three-disc set was compiled by musicologist Harry Smith. It is comprised of 84 songs which reintroduce “near-forgotten popular styles of rural American music…to new listeners.” WK It could well be “the most influential document” JB of “the folk & blues revival of the ‘50s and ‘60s” WK by bringing attention to the works of the Carter Family, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, and others. Read more.
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Friday, October 30, 2020

100 years ago: Paul Whiteman’s “Whispering” hit #1

Whispering

Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra

Writer(s): Vincent Rose (music), John Schonberger and Richard Coburn (lyrics) (see lyrics here)

First Charted: October 30, 1920

Peak: 111 US, 12 GA, 1 5 SM (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 3.0 (includes 1.0 in sheet music)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.48 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

This was the debut chart single for Paul Whiteman, and what a beginning it was. The song was the second biggest hit of the year CPM and the biggest chart success of Whiteman’s career. It was the first of Whiteman’s 30 songs to go all the way to the top and helped him to become the most popular bandleader of the pre-swing era and the dominant force in American popular recording. PM “Whispering” sold over two million copies which, considering the number of record players in use then, would be the equivalent today of sales of 20 million. TY1

The Whiteman orchestra started playing the song early in 1920 in Los Angeles during a gig at the Ambassador Hotel, TY1 but Ray Miller & His Black and White Melody Boys recorded it first on July 1, 1920. WK By year’s end, Victor Records released Whiteman’s version which TY1 backed by “The Japanese Sandman” (also a #1), became the first charted version.

As was common for songs from that time, “Whispering” “has a basic stepwise melody, simple harmony, and no syncopation.” TY1 In addition, “the harmony lends itself to banjo and guitar accompaniment, and the melody encourages group singing.” TY1 In 1920, many families still carried on the pre-victrola tradition of gathering for sing-along sessions. TY1

The online All Music Guide says more than 700 different versions of the song have been recorded, including versions by Harry Belafonte, Miles Davis, Tommy Dorsey, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Rollins, and Frank Sinatra. WK It has also charted in four different decades. Art Hickman and John Steel followed with top-ten versions of the song. Thirty years later, Les Paul had a million-selling, top-ten hit with his 1951 recording of the song. Unlike the original slow ballad, theirs was a rhythmic version. TY1 Gordon Jenkins also had a minor hit with it that year and then Paul Whiteman himself re-recorded the song in 1954 and took it to #29. PM The song charted again in 1964 when Nino Tempo & April Stevens took it to #11. In 1977, Dr. Buzzard’s Original “Savannah” Band hit #27 with a disco medley including the song.

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First posted 10/30/2011; last updated 1/28/2023.

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