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The 1900's --- Music hath charm to soothe the savage beast or Make it RAGTIME!

Manuel Romain, Henry Burr and Billy Murray would all enjoy a hit with the song I WONDER WHOSE KISSING HER NOW? Today, the song is best remembered by the chorus --- the verses all but forgotten. The song was published in 1909 and was first introduced in the musical The Prince of To-Night when it was performed by Henry Woodruff that same year
 
Another big hit of 1909 would be PUT ON YOU OLD GREY BONNET. A grand old reminiscent song about days gone by. This song would appear in later westerns and would be remembered and rerecorded for decades. I remember this song and enjoyed it when I was a kid. A interesting sidelight is that Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver of LEAVE IT TO BEAVER fame) was born in 1909. So it isn't hard to imagine that songs like this were still remembered and enjoyed.
 
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Gertie Millar, who began her stage career at age 13, would would have a great stage hit with her rendition of MOONSTRUCK in 1909: And this might give you a glimpse as to how the song was originally presented on stage --- forgive the costumes as they are not period:
 
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Billy Murray would have a hit in 1909 with this song written in 1908. He recorded GOOD EVENING, CAROLINE both years; however, the INDESTRUCTABLE Record of '09 proved to be his most popular version. Like many of the songs from this time period, they were written for Vaudeville:
 
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SHINE ON HARVEST MOON, would become a very popular standard for decades. The song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 to great acclaim, and continues to be performed and recorded in the 21st century. Here is the ever popular Ada Jones and Billy Murray rendition of this song recorded in 1909:
 
Henery Burr would have a popular sentimental rendition of TO THE END OF THE WORLD WITH YOU in 1909: This copy was found on an INDESTRUCTIBLE Cylinder (these were cast in celluloid)
 
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YIP-I-ADDY-I-AY would be a very happy hit that would oddly enough would hang around for years. Say if you lived 113 years ago, you might have heard this played on a piano, and it would sounded like this: Here is MARY MARTIN singing the song in 1942:
 
On EDISON Cylinder Records =, Arthur Collins and Byron G. Harlan would have a good country hit tilted DOWN AMONG THE SUGAR CANE:
 
Ada Jones would have a big hit on COLUMBIA & VICTOR Records and INDESTRUCTABLE & EDISON Cylinders. The song was BEAUTIFUL EYES from MR. Hamlet of Broadway:
 
This pop song of 1909 was actually recorded in 1908 and was a big hit for Arthur Collins. The song is I LOVE MY WIFE, BUT OH YOU KID:
Bob Roberts recorded it in 1909:
 
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PONY BOY was a great Ada Jones hit of 1909. The song would find it's way onto children's records of the 1950's likely due to the popularity of TV Westerns: Here is a Peter Pan Record from 1950 --- note how the verse is dropped and only the chorus remains:
I will admit to (on a dare) jumping on a new kid's back on the playground and singing this song. I was reprimanded and sent inside, and when the teacher asked me what I was doing to lose my recess time, I sheepishly stated that I was just "horsing around"... This song was incorporated into the Broadway musical Miss Innocence (1909). Along with songs like CHEYENNE, it became a cliché, as its tune was frequently used in Western movies and cartoons.
 
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Here is another version of MY PONY BOY. The Victrolaman will play the tune for us on a VICTOR MODEL III TALKING MACHINE from about 1910, and I will let him speak for himself regarding this song. Just to give you an idea as to how popular this tune would become:
Here also it is on an INDESTRUCTIBLR CYLINDER from the same year played on a COLUMBIA AB 1901 key wind GRAPHOPHONE. One thing about the AB GRAPHOPHONE is that you could NOT wind it up while a record was playing ---- the machine would come to a stop. This would of course be corrected on various later machines.
 
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I REMEMBER YOU is a song that in 1909 was song recorded by Ada Jones as a solo and on another recording with Billy Murray --- though they both sing a part, but not as a duet. The song is from the musical comedy "The Girls of Gottenberg." In this song a lady suspects that she is being had, and turns the tables on a shyster --- sticking him with the bill instead. A very clever song. The Girls of Gottenberg is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts. The musical opened at the Gaiety Theatre in London, on 15 May 1907, and ran for 303 performances. The show also had a Broadway run at the Knickerbocker Theatre opening on 2 September 1908. And this is why the song became so popular in the US by 1909. And here is Ada Jones singing the song the same year SOLO:
 
Henry Burr would have a syrupy hit with HONEY ON OUR HONEYMOON on COLUMBIA Disc RECORDS --- the women loved it:
Come honeymoon, come love and spoon
Don’t you keep me waiting Molly dear
Hearts are in tune, love blooms in June
Cupid’s getting mighty busy here
The roses seem to whisper in my ear

Queen of my heart, we’ll never part
Love like mine dear gold could never buy
Birds in the trees, sing to the breeze
Love’s message has been carried to the sky
The man up in the moon just winks his eye

Honeymoon with me my honey
 
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Though I don't share your passion for the music of the period I tip my hat to your unswerving devotion, particularly amid posters looking to make pointless quarrels about musical taste. (And that's all I'll say on that subject here.) Kudos.
 
Ouroboros said:
Though I don't share your passion for the music of the period I tip my hat to your unswerving devotion, particularly amid posters looking to make pointless quarrels about musical taste. (And that's all I'll say on that subject here.) Kudos.
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What I really like about this music is its (for the most part) happy-go-lucky. It also represents the stepping stone to nearly everything we listen to today. This is the very infancy of recorded sound entertainment and it's interesting when one imagines that this is really what our great-grand parents would listen to. And not only that ----- THEY WOUND UP THEIR PHONOGRAPH, GRAPHOPHONE, or VICTROLA ---- and felt nothing of it! There was no radio for the most part, no television... They either made the music themselves, got someone to play it for them, or wound up some mechanical device. And yet some of these melodies are still with us.
As a little kid growing up in the 1950's and early 60's, most of this music was merely 40, 50, and 60 years old. And the reality is that the music of the 50's, 60's and 70's is now in the very same boat, today...
 
I really enjoy HARRY LAUDER. What a Scotsman! Here is Sir Lauder singing one of his many hits that he would rerecord year after year ---- he was that popular! Here are both the 1908 2minute EDISON Cylinder and his 1910 EDISON 4minute Cylinder recordings:
 
After Harry Lauder's SHE IS MY DAISY above. We now have true ballad in every sense of the word. Here Reed Miller singing what must be regarded as the antithesis to Harry Lauder's format above, IN THE GARDEN OF MY HEART at number 24 for 1909:
 
Will Oakland had a tender hit in 1909 with NOBODY KNOWS, NOBODY CARES, published that same year. Here is a very clear 2 minute wax EDISON CYLINDER Record which has to be among the last of the 2 minute wax variety to be recorded.
 
Here is the English Music Hall artist George Chirgwin's hit THE JOCULAR JOKER:
 
THAT WASN'T ALL would be a comic hit for Ralph Herz in 1909: And below is the Sheet music singer to provide his rendition using the original sheet music from the 1908 musical THE SOUL KISS that opened in January and closed in May that year from the period: It was very difficult to find a copy of the recording. While it was popular for its day, it seems to have totally lapsed into obscurity. In part this could be due to the show never being revived and also the length of the song and the implications it expressed.
 
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