Showing posts with label pre-rock era. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pre-rock era. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

New Book! The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era 1890-1953

The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era 1890-1953

is available at Amazon.com for $13.95.

Songwriters and big bands and barbershop quartets ruled. Broadway and sheet music drove popularity, not YouTube and Spotify. However, a perusal of most “best songs of all time” list suggests music didn’t exist prior to the rock era. This book remedies that problem by focusing exclusively on the music before Elvis Presley and the Beatles - the works of songwriters such as Irving Berlin and George M. Cohan and musicians like Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller, and Al Jolson. Compiled from sales figures, and chart data, and hundreds of best-of lists, these are the best songs of roughly the first half of the 20th century.

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Thursday, December 22, 2016

The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era (1890-1953)

Book:

The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953

Also available through DavesMusicDatabase.com.

The Top 100 Songs of the Pre-Rock Era, 1890-1953 book is available through Amazon or through DavesMusicDatabase.com.

This is a companion book to The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era, 1954-1999, available at DavesMusicDatabase.com as a standard book or ebook! In the beginning stages of writing that book, my intent was to write a “top 100 songs of all time” book. As I quickly discovered, most lists proclaiming to highlight “the best of all time” seem to be under the impression that music didn’t exist prior to 1950. I decided to retool my project to focus on the rock era and put together another book focused on the “forgotten years.”

This is the result. As always with DMDB lists, the rankings are determined by aggregating multiple best-of lists and factoring in songs’ sales, chart stats, and awards. It should be noted that in the pre-rock era there were often multiple versions of a song. In fact, some best-of lists did not list a specific version. When the latter occurred, all versions of a song were given points. Once all points were compiled, only the top version of a song was included in this list.

1. Bing Crosby “White Christmas” (1942)
2. Judy Garland “Over the Rainbow” (1939)
3. Fre Astaire “Night and Day” (1932)
4. Arthur Collins with Byron Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)
5. Glenn Miller “In the Mood” (1939)
6. Artie Shaw “Stardust” (1941)
7. Fred Astaire “Cheek to Cheek” (1935)
8. Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong “St. Louis Blues” (1925)
9. Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (1927)
10. Artie Shaw “Begin the Beguine” (1938)

11. American Quartet “Over There” (1917)
12. Paul Whiteman “Whispering” (1920)
13. Al Jolson “Swanee” (1920)
14. Al Jolson “April Showers” (1922)
15. Ethel Waters “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” (1933)
16. Billy Murray “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”)” (1906)
17. Peerless Quartet “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1911)
18. Tommy Dorsey with Jack Leonard “All the Things You Are” (1939)
19. Fred Astaire “The Way You Look Tonight” (1936)
20. Haydn Quartet “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” (1904)

21. Gene Autry “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949)
22. Patti Page “Tennessee Waltz” (1950)
23. Bing Crosby “Pennies from Heaven” (1936)
24. The Harmonicats “Peg O’ My Heart” (1947)
25. Dooley Wilson “As Time Goes By” (1942)
26. The Mills Brothers “Paper Doll” (1942)
27. Paul Robeson “Ol’ Man River” (1928)
28. Al Jolson “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” (1913)
29. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908)
30. Coleman Hawkins “Body and Soul” (1940)

31. American Quartet “Moonlight Bay” (1912)
32. Ben Selvin “Dardanella” (1920)
33. Billy Murray “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” (1904)
34. Billy Murray “Give My Regards to Broadway” (1905)
35. Jo Stafford “You Belong to Me” (1952)
36. Billy Murray with Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1910)
37. Thomas “Fats” Waller “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (1929)
38. The Weavers “Goodnight Irene” (1950)
39. Marion Harris “Tea for Two” (1925)
40. Ella Ftizgerald with Chick Webb “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” (1938)

41. Duke Ellington “Mood Indigo” (1931)
42. Vernon Dalhart “The Prisoner’s Song” (1925)
43. Vaughn Monroe “Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)” (1949)
44. Haydn Quartet “In the Good Old Summertime” (1903)
45. Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey” (1945)
46. Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra “I’ll Never Smile Again” (1940)
47. Francis Craig with Bob Lamm “Near You” (1947)
48. Cliff Edwards I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (1928)
49. Harry MacDonough with Miss Walton “Shine on, Harvest Moon” (1909)
50. Byron Harlan “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” (1907)

51. Glenn Miller “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (1941)
52. Nat “King” Cole “The Christmas Song” (1946)
53. Isham Jones “It Had to Be You” (1924)
54. Cliff Edwards “When You Wish Upon a Star” (1940)
55. Ben Selvin “Happy Days Are Here Again” (1930)
56. Paul Whiteman with Bob Lawrence “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (1933)
57. Original Dixieland Jazz Band “Tiger Rag” (1918)
58. Kate Smith “God Bless America” (1939)
59. Les Paul with Mary Ford “How High the Moon” (1951)
60. Glen Gray with Kenny Sargent “Blue Moon” (1935)

61. Red Nichols “I Got Rhythm” (1930)
62. Nat “King” Cole “Mona Lisa” (1950)
63. Dinah Shore & Her Harper Valley Boys “Buttons and Bows” (1948)
64. Billy Murray “Yankee Doodle Boy” (1905)
65. Henry Burr with Albert Campbell “Till We Meet Again” (1919)
66. Bing Crosby “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944)
67. Chauncey Olcott “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” (1913)
68. Arthur Collins “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home” (1902)
69. John McCormack “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” (1915)
70. George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice, & Edward Joye “Always” (1926)

71. Larry Clinton with Bea Wain “Deep Purple” (1939)
72. The Ink Spots “The Gypsy” (1946)
73. Billie Holiday “Strange Fruit” (1939)
74. Al Jolson “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” (1918)
75. Byron Harlan “My Gal Sal” (1907)
76. Bing Crosby “Swinging on a Star” (1944)
77. Al Jolson “Sonny Boy” (1928)
78. Byron Harlan “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” (1906)
79. Van & Schenck “Ain’t We Got Fun?” (1921)
80. Harry James with Helen Forrest “I’ve Heard That Song Before” (1943)

81. Artie Shaw “Frenesi” (1940)
82. American Quartet with Billy Murray “Casey Jones” (1910)
83. Ted Lewis “On the Sunny Side of the Street” (1930)
84. Little Jack Little “I’m in the Mood for Love” (1935)
85. Gertrude Lawrence “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1927)
86. Pee Wee Hunt “Twelfth Street Rag” (1948)
87. Marion Harris “After You’ve Gone” (1919)
88. Perry Como “Some Enchanted Evening” (1949)
89. Judy Garland with Gene Kelly “For Me and My Gal” (1942)
90. Arthur Collins & Byron Harlan “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1918)

91. Gene Austin “My Melancholy Baby” (1928)
92. Woody Herman “Blues in the Night (My Mama Done Tol’ Me)” (1941)
93. Henry Burr “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” (1909)
94. Bing Crosby “Silent Night” (1935)
95. Haydn Quartet “Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet” (1909)
96. Billy Murray “In My Merry Oldsmobile” (1905)
97. Harry MacDonough “Down by the Old Mill Stream” (1911)
98. Ben Selvin “Blue Skies” (1927)
99. Rudy Vallee “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (1932)
100. Duke Ellington “Take the ‘A’ Train” (1941)

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Originally posted 6/23/2012. Last updated 4/3/2021.

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Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Top 100 Music Makers of the Pre-Rock Era (1890-1953)

Check the Dave’s Music Database Facebook page for daily music-related posts.



After a couple treks WAY down memory lane this last week (Duke Ellington’s 1941 “Take the ‘A’ Train” and Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra’s 1940 “I’ll Never Smile Again”), the timing was right for a glimpse at the biggest music makers of the pre-rock era. Music makers is an all-encompasing term used to embrace individual performers, groups, songwriters, and others involved in the creation of music. This list is dominated by performers, but there are some notable songwriters and composers on the list. Music makers who debuted from 1954 on were disqualified from this list so don’t look for Elvis Presley and his ilk here! Click on names to see their entries in the Dave’s Music Database Music Makers Encyclopedia.

1. Bing Crosby
2. Frank Sinatra
3. Paul Whiteman Orchestra
4. Tommy Dorsey
5. Benny Goodman
6. Billy Murray
7. Guy Lombardo
8. Louis Armstrong
9. Perry Como
10. Nat “King” Cole



Bing Crosby


11. Glenn Miller
12. Duke Ellington
13. Henry Burr
14. Al Jolson
15. Fats Domino
16. Jimmy Dorsey
17. The Andrews Sisters
18. Byron G. Harlan
19. Arthur Collins
20. Peerless Quartet/Columbia Male Quartet



Frank Sinatra


21. Billie Holiday
22. Ella Fitzgerald
23. Sammy Kaye
24. Harry MacDonough
25. Ben Selvin
26. Ted Lewis & His Band
27. Patti Page
28. Fats Waller
29. Frankie Laine
30. Jo Stafford



Paul Whiteman


31. Mills Brothers
32. Freddy Martin
33. Harry James
34. Eddy Arnold
35. Dinah Shore
36. Muddy Waters
37. Robert Johnson
38. Isham Jones
39. Kay Kyser
40. Leo Reisman



Tommy Dorsey


41. Haydn Quartet
42. Vaughn Monroe Orchestra
43. Rudy Vallee
44. Irving Berlin
45. Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra
46. George Gershwin
47. Eddie Fisher
48. Ada Jones
49. Gene Austin
50. American Quartet



Benny Goodman


51. Eddy Duchin
52. Artie Shaw
53. Hal Kemp
54. Ray Noble
55. Count Basie
56. Charles Adams Prince/Prince’s Orchestra
57. Jan Garber Orchestra
58. Russ Morgan
59. Ink Spots
60. John McCormack



Billy Murray


61. Fred Waring
62. Ruth Etting
63. Igor Stravinsky
64. Woody Herman
65. George Olsen & His Orchestra
66. Marion Harris
67. Richard Rodgers
68. Doris Day
69. Louis Jordan
70. Enrico Caruso



Guy Lombardo


71. Les Paul
72. Thelonious Monk
73. Gene Autry
74. Dick Haymes
75. Woody Guthrie
76. Albert Campbell
77. Nat Shilkret
78. Cab Calloway
79. Jerome Kern
80. Oscar Hammerstein II



Louis Armstrong


81. Teddy Wilson & His Orchestra
82. Bessie Smith
83. Margaret Whiting
84. Ted Weems Orchestra
85. Dizzy Gillespie
86. Peggy Lee
87. Fred Astaire
88. Rosemary Clooney
89. Horace Heidt
90. Len Spencer



Perry Como


91. Charlie Parker
92. Eddy Howard Orchestra
93. Bob Crosby
94. Shep Fields
95. Marty Robbins
96. Jimmie Rodgers
97. Ira Gershwin
98. Ozzie Nelson
99. Roy Acuff
100. Ben Bernie



Nat “King” Cole


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Tuesday, August 1, 2000

Top 100 Songs According to Gardner’s Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, 1900-1949

Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century:

Top 100 Songs, 1900-1949

Edward Foote Gardner’s book, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century tackled the task of crafting charts for the popular songs of the pre-rock era. He developed a top 20 chart for each month of every year from 1900-1949. The charts also listed only song titles and not particular performers as it was common in the pre-rock era for multiple artists to have recordings of the same hit songs.

This chart was created by first sorting songs based on total months at #1. The artist with the top-ranked version of the song is the one listed. Because there were multiple ties, songs were then listed in order of overall DMDB rank. An additional 64 songs which didn’t make this list were at #1 for 2 months.

Check other lists based on charts, sales, and airplay here.

5 months at #1:

1. American Quartet “Over There” (1917)
2. Byron Harlan “School Days (When We Were a Couple of Kids)” (1907)

4 months at #1:

3. Arthur Collins with Byron Harlan “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911)
4. Henry Burr “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree” (1905)
5. Ben Selvin “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” (1919)
6. Ray Noble with Al Bowlly “The Old Spinning Wheel” (1933)
7. Haydn Quartet with Harry MacDonough “Sunbonnet Sue” (1908)
8. Byron G. Harlan “The Blue and the Gray” (1900)

3 months at #1:

9. The Mills Brothers “Paper Doll” (1942)
10. Francis Craig with Bob Lamm “Near You” (1947)
11. The Harmonicats “Peg O’ My Heart” (1947)
12. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1910)
13. Al Jolson “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” (1913)
14. American Quartet “Moonlight Bay” (1912)
15. Dinah Shore & Her Harper Valley Boys “Buttons and Bows” (1948)
16. Harry MacDonough with Elise Stevenson (as Miss Walton) “ Shine on, Harvest Moon” (1909)
17. Sophie Tucker “Some of These Days” (1911)
18. The Ink Spots “The Gypsy” (1946)
19. Henry Burr with Albert Campbell “Till We Meet Again” (1919)
20. Byron Harlan “Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” (1906)

21. George Olsen with Fran Frey, Bob Rice, & Edward Joyce “Always” (1926)
22. Harry MacDonough “Down by the Old Mill Stream” (1911)
23. Haydn Quartet “Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet” (1909)
24. Heidelberg Quintet “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee” (1912)
25. Paul Whiteman “Three O’Clock in the Morning” (1922)
26. Billy Murray with the American Quartet “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” (1911)
27. J.W. Myers “On a Sunday Afternoon” (1902)
28. Byron G. Harlan “Hello Central, Give Me Heaven” (1901)
29. Gene Austin “Ramona” (1928)
30. Paul Whiteman “What’ll I Do?” (1924)

31. Harry MacDonough “Hiawatha (His Song to Minnehaha)” (1903)
32. The Victor Military Band “Poor Butterfly” (1917)
33. Wayne King with Ernie Birchill “Goodnight Sweetheart” (1931)
34. Haydn Quartet with Harry MacDonough “Bedelia” (1904)
35. Heidelberg Quintet “By the Beautiful Sea” (1914)
36. George MacFarlane “A Little Bit of Heaven (Shure, They Call It Ireland)” (1915)
37. Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “Now Is the Hour (Maori Farewell Song)” (1948)
38. Leo Reisman with Frances Maddux “Paradise” (1932)
39. Arthur Collins “Under the Bamboo Tree” (1902)
40. Joseph Smith with Harry MacDonough “Smiles” (1918)

41. Al Jolson “I Wonder What’s Become of Sally” (1924)
42. Dinah Shore “I’ll Walk Alone” (1944)
43. Henry Burr “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland” (1910)
44. Billy Murray “Pretty Baby” (1916)
45. Byron G. Harlan with Frank Stanley “Blue Bell” (1904)
46. Fred Waring with Clare Hanlon “Little White Lies” (1930)
47. Big Four Quartet “Goodbye Dolly Gray” (1901)
48. Elizabeth Spencer with Charles Hart “Let the Rest of the World Go By” (1920)
49. Metropolitan Orchestra “Creole Belles” (1902)

2 months at #1:

50. Bing Crosby with the Ken Darby Singers “White Christmas” (1942)
51. Judy Garland “Over the Rainbow” (1939)
52. Gene Austin “My Blue Heaven” (1927)
53. Paul Whiteman “Whispering” (1920)
54. Billy Murray “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”)” (1906)
55. Vernon Dalhart “The Prisoner’s Song” (1925)
56. Peerless Quartet “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1911)
57. Tommy Dorsey with Frank Sinatra “I’ll Never Smile Again” (1940)
58. Les Brown with Doris Day “Sentimental Journey” (1945)
59. Billy Murray with the Haydn Quartet “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908)
60. Artie Shaw “Frenesi” (1940)

61. Dooley Wilson “As Time Goes By” (1942)
62. Vaughn Monroe “Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)” (1949)
63. Billy Murray “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” (1904)
64. Glenn Miller with Tex Beneke & the Four Modernaires “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (1941)
65. Billy Murray “Yankee Doodle Boy” (1905)
66. Al Jolson “Sonny Boy” (1928)
67. Harry James with Helen Forrest “I’ve Heard That Song Before” (1943)
68. Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter’s Orchestra “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944)
69. Larry Clinton with Bea Wain “Deep Purple” (1939)
70. J.W. Myers “In the Good Old Summertime” (1902)

71. Perry Como “Till the End of Time” (1945)
72. John McCormack “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary” (1915)
73. Van & Schenck “Carolina in the Morning” (1923)
74. Nick Lucas Tip Toe “Through the Tulips” (1929)
75. Henry Burr “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” (1909)
76. Johnny Mercer with the Pied Pipers “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” (1945)
77. Ben Selvin “Blue Skies” (1927)
78. Arthur Collins with Byron Harlan “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1918)
79. Ted Lewis “In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town” (1932)
80. Victor Orchestra “The Glow-Worm” (1908)

81. Rudy Vallee “Stein Song (University of Maine)” (1930)
82. Billy Jones “Yes! We Have No Bananas” (1923)
83. Eddie Cantor “If You Knew Susie Like I Know Susie” (1925)
84. Wendell Hall “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo’” (1924)
85. Dick Haymes with the Song Spinners “You’ll Never Know” (1943)
86. Paul Whiteman with Franklyn Baur “Valencia (A Song of Spain)” (1926)
87. Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly & Helen O’Connell “Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy)” (1941)
88. George Olsen with Joe Morrison “The Last Round-Up” (1933)
89. Paul Whiteman “My Mammy” (1921)
90. Jimmy Dorsey with Bob Eberly & Kitty Kallen “Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)” (1944)

91. Eddie Cantor “Margie” (1921)
92. Johnny Mercer & the Pied Pipers “On the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe” (1945)
93. Peerless Quartet “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” (1915)
94. Blue Barron & His Orchestra “Cruising Down the River on a Sunday Afternoon” (1949)
95. Frankie Carle with Marjorie Hughes “Oh, What It Seemed to Be” (1946)
96. Billy Murray “Harrigan” (1907)
97. Henry Burr “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight” (1918)
98. Ethel Waters “Am I Blue?” (1929)
99. Vic Damone “You’re Breaking My Heart” (1949)
100. Steve Porter “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” (1900)

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First posted 7/22/2014; last updated 12/1/2022.

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Friday, October 3, 1986

50 years ago: Fred Astaire hit #1 with “The Way You Look Tonight”

The Way You Look Tonight

Fred Astaire with Johnny Greer’s Orchestra

Writer(s): Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields (see lyrics here)

First Charted: August 29, 1936

Peak: 16 US, 16 HP, 14 GA, 16 SM (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2.28 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

The 1936 Academy Award winner for Best Song was crooned by Fred Astaire to Ginger Rodgers in Swing Time while she shampooed her hair. In the movie, she emerges from the bathroom in a robe, so smitten by his declaration of love that she forgets about her lathered-up scalp. When he looks up from the piano after the last line, he’s startled to see her there. She flees in embarrassment, now aware of her sudsy look.

The moment made for a cute, romantic moment which perfectly fit Dorothy Fields’ “gentle lyric [which] made the song as singable to a child as to a sweetheart.” MM Fields started crying when Jerome Kern first played her the melody. “I couldn’t stop,” she said. “It was so beautiful.” SB

Astaire charted with the song in 1936 (#1), as did Guy Lombardo (#3) and Teddy Wilson with Billie Holiday (#3). Benny Goodman charted (#21) with it in 1942. It has also been recorded by Betty Buckley, John Coltrane, Neil Diamond, Billy Eckstine, the Lettermen, and Betty Carter with Ray Bryant on piano. MM It has enjoyed additional movie success, most notably in the 1997 Julia Roberts’ film My Best Friend’s Wedding. MM

“Tonight” actually has no verse, which isn’t unusual for a Kern song, but at 44 bars, it is also a long song. SB The “long, open melody and characteristic key change” MM has made the song “a jazz and cabaret standard.” JA

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Last updated 3/19/2023.

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