100 years ago: “Shine on, Harvest Moon” hit #1

Shine on, Harvest Moon Harry MacDonough with Miss Walton

Writer(s): Jack Norworth, Nora Bayes (see lyrics here) First Charted: April 10, 1909 Peak: 19 US, 13 GA, 15 SM (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Shine on, Harvest Moon Ada Jones & Billy Murray

First Charted: May 15, 1909 Peak: 15 US, 13 GA (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, -- streaming

Awards (MacDonough): Click on award for more details. Awards (Jones/Murray):

About the Song: Nora Bayes was a Broadway and vaudevillian performer in the early 1900s. In 1908, she married Jack Norworth, a singer, songwriter, and dancer, who also wrote “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” The pair toured and composed together. The duo’s collaboration, “Shine on, Harvest Moon,” “became her musical trademark” TY2 and one of “the most recognized of the many ‘moon’ ballads.” RCG The song is about “a guy begging the harvest moon to shine brightly so he and his girl can ‘stay outdoors and spoon.’” TY2 It was “decidedly old-fashioned and a product of twentieth century innocence.” RCG She sang the song as a solo act SM in Ziegfeld Follies of 1908. The couple didn’t last, divorcing in 1913 (the second of five marriages for Bayes!), SF but the song survived. Both performed it the rest of their lives. RCG It became a favorite for player pianos and barbershop quartets RCG and “remains a perennial among amateur singers everywhere.” DJ-172 It had an impressive chart life with seven takes on the song peaking in the top 20 over the next quarter century. The first, and most successful, was a duet between Harry MacDonough and Miss Walton (believed to be Elise Stevenson) in 1909. They took the song to #1 for 9 weeks. Their version used the verse, chorus, and a second verse while another popular duo version by Ada Jones and Billy Murray did just the first verse and chorus. SM That one also went to #1 while other versions that year, one by the duo of Frank Stanley and Henry Burr, another by Bob Roberts, went to #2 and #6 respectively. The following year, Arthur Pryor also went top 5 with the song. “Harvest Moon” was revived by Ruth Etting in Ziegfeld Follies of 1931. DJ Ethel Waters took the song back to the top ten that same year. Two years later, Kate Smith took the song back to the top 20. Over the years, the song has also been sung by Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, Glenn Miller, and Liza Minnelli. RCG At age 8, Britney Spears sang it for her Mickey Mouse Club audition. WK It has also appeared in at least a dozen films, most notably an eponymously titled 1944 biopic starring Ann Sheridan and Dennis Morgan as Bayes and Norworth. RCG A 1938 Roy Rogers western was named after the song and Laurel & Hardy performed it in their 1939 film The Flying Deuces. It was also used in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), Look for the Silver Lining (1949), Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), I’ll See You in My Dreams (1952), The Eddy Duchin Story (1957), TY2 and Pennies from Heaven (1978). WK Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Elise Stevenson (Miss Walton) DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Nora Bayes DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Jack Norworth Archive.org: download the song DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 172. 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 44. Related Links: First posted 4/10/2012; last updated 12/15/2022.

Billy Murray Anthology released

Anthology: The Denver Nightingale Billy Murray

Released: April 27, 2018 Recorded: 1903-1940 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: traditional pop

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. The Way to Kiss a Girl [1:58] (1903) Bedelia [2:13] (1/23/1904, 13 US, 1 GA) Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis [2:11] (7/23/1904, 19 US, 1 GA) Alexander (Don’t You Love Your Baby No More?) [2:11] (9/19/1904, 13 US, 4 GA) Come Take a Trip in My Air-Ship [2:15] (1/4/1905, 14 US, 1 GA) Yankee Doodle Boy [2:34] (2/25/1905, 18 US, 1 GA) Under the Anheuser Bush [2:32] (2/20/1904, 2 US, 4 GA) Give My Regards to Broadway [2:33] (6/17/1905, 15 US, 3 GA) In My Merry Oldsmobile [2:52] (10/14/1905, 17 US, 2 GA) Everybody Works But Father [1:49] (12/23/1905, 13 US, 3 GA) Youre a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”) [2:46] (5/5/1906, 110 US, 1 GA) He Goes to Church on Sunday [2:17] (7/6/1907, 2 US, 6 GA) Harrigan [2:29] (9/14/1907, 19 US, 1 GA) Shine on, Harvest Moon (with Ada Jones) [2:07] (5/15/1909, 15 US, 1 GA) Carrie (Carrie Marry Harry) [3:05] (1/15/1910, 12 US, 4 GA) By the Light of the Silvery Moon (with the Haydn Quartet) [2:50] (4/9/1910, 19, 1 GA) Casey Jones (with the American Quartet) [2:46] (6/18/1910, 111 US, 3 GA) The Cubanola Glide [2:30] (6/4/1910, 6 US, 2 GA) He’d Hae to Get Under, Get Out, and Get Under to Fix Up His Automobile [3:15] (2/17/1914, 2 US, 1 GA) He’s a Devil in His Own Home Town [2:50] (7/4/1914, 2 US, 2 GA) I Love a Piano [2:46] (4/8/1916, 11 US) Pretty Baby [2:40] (10/7/1916, 11 US, 1 GA) K-K-K-Katy (Stammering Song) [2:58] (6/1/1918, 3 US, 1 GA) He Went in Like a Lion and Came Out Like a Lamb [2:56] (6/19/1920, 10 US) You’ve Got to See Mama Ev’ry Night (with Aileen Stanley) [2:57] (6/30/1923, 11 US) That Old Gang of Mine (with Ed Smalle) [3:04] (9/23/1923, 16 US, 1 GA) Charley, My Boy (with the International Novelty Orchestra) [3:11] (1924) I Faw Down and Go Boom! (with the Midnight Ramblers) [2:55] (1928) I Wonder What Amos ‘N Andy Will Do Tomorrow Night (with Walter Scanlan) [3:05] (1930) It’s the Same Old Shillelagh (with Harry’s Tavern Band) [2:08] (1940) Total Running Time: 78:56

Rating: 4.728 out of 5.00 (average of 10 ratings) Quotable: Billy Murray “set a standard for natural, conversational singing that informed popular music long after he himself passed from the scene.” – William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Billy Murray may have been 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 “He remained forgotten in the LP era and for the first decades of the CD era. But this disc belatedly brings him into the digital realm, and it does so with spectacular success.” AMG “Murray’s excellent articulation and comic timing made him a perfect singer for the acoustic era of recording, allowing him to be understood and appreciated despite the technical limitations. He led the way for such successors as Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor, and he set a standard for natural, conversational singing that informed popular music long after he himself passed from the scene. This long-overdue compilation presents the highlights of his extensive catalog; there is plenty more where it came from.” AMG He was “one of the best interpreters of the music of George M. Cohan—America’s preeminent songwriter.” AZ This includes the songs Yankee Doodle Boy, Give My Regards to Broadway, You’re a Grand Old Flag, and Harrigan. “From rousing anthems to biting wit, Billy had a knack for entertaining as a solo artist and with bands.” AZ That means that in addition to his solo recordings, there are representations here of songs he recorded with the American and Haydn Quartets as well as duo efforts with Ada Jones, Aileen Stanley, Ed Smalle, and Walter Scanlan. This collection gathers 30 songs from throughout his career, spanning from 1903 to 1940. Given the chart success of so many of these songs, this set is on par with the greatest compilations of all time, such as the Beatles’ One and Elvis Presley’s 30 #1 Hits. Seventeen of these songs reached #1. Another seven were top-ten hits. Six of the songs here are featured in the Dave’s Music Database book The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era. “Murray had so many popular recordings that a single disc could not hope to encompass them, but given the time limitations the producers have done the best possible job.” AMG In addition to some of Murray’s most important recordings, this collection also includes “the rare brown wax cylinder of The Way to Kiss a Girl, from one of Billy’s first recording sessions.” AZ It works its way through his more popular years, and then his “decline in the late 1920s and ‘30s and his attempted comeback in the early ‘40s with It’s the Same Old Shillelagh, performed with Harry’s Tavern Band, “giving a full sense of his recording career.” AMG Notes: Originally released in 2002, this was remastered in 2018 and a “24-page booklet contains a biographical essay and song notes by Murray biographer Frank Hoffmann and a reminiscence of Murray by a man who knew him, Quentin Riggs.” AZ

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Billy Murray AMG All Music Guide review by William Ruhlmann AZ Amazon AR Archeophone Records First posted 2/9/2022.