(above) header tab 5 generation browse demonstration: Page Index > Songbook site index > Songwriter > Songwriters to 1954 > Berlin, Irving > Berlin pages (11) — correction: The page Irving Berlin: selected songs of 1909 and 1910is now included in the Berlin drop down index.
The following articles have been modified in the past month or so. In some cases, articles that were previously presented in two separate parts have been condensed to a single article with multiple pages. In other cases, long single page articles were split up into multiple page articles to improve loading times. In every case, links to all pages in the article are found at the bottom of each page.
The page The Gumm Sisters on film, 1929-30 and 1935 was also recently revised. Among the changes were corrections to my transcription of the song “Blue Butterfly” and inclusion of a couple of additional 1929 recordings of that song.
Today’s post features the lyric of the song “So It’s Spring,” written by Tommy Wolf (music) and Wayne Arnold (words). I’d been unable to find the lyric online so I decided to transcribe the words myself, a job which I completed late last night before retiring. The lyric is found below the video in the post, and has also been added to my page on the song, which I’d published about a year ago. That page is here: So It’s Spring.
The earliest recording of “So It’s Spring” that I’m aware of is that released on the 1958 Tommy Wolf album Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most, Fraternity Records F-1010. The album was recorded on 5 & 6 September 1957, and features a trio consisting of Tommy Wolf (piano, vocals), Monty Budwig (bass), and Shelly Manne (drums). Other recordings include the following:
Jackie & Roy with Bill Holman’s Orchestra, released on the 1958 album Free and Easy!, ABC-Paramount ABC-207
Carol Lawrence with orchestra conducted by Harry Betts, released on the 1962 album This Heart of Mine, album produced by Jackie Mills and Tommy Wolf
Ed Vodicka & Friends, released on the 1987 CD album Portfolio, Best Recordings BR89-512
These are actually the only four recordings of the song that I’ve yet found.
When the snow and the sleet are done And the woolens are put away Everyone shouts hooray! It’s spring, hooray!
But I never have figured out What the hullabaloo’s about Why do the people shout Hooray! hooray!
I don’t give a tooralay If it’s April, March, or May This is what I’ve got to say
chorus:
1 So it’s gonna be spring, so what? So it’s spring Is that good? When I walk through the park I just walk through the park And go home to my own little bed
2 So the bird’s on the wing, so what? I should care Let it wing All that passionate cooing The pigeons are doing Don’t matter a smidgen Unless you’re a pigeon I’m not, and so what if it’s spring
3 Each bud that is bursting in bloom Unfolds to the delicate bee And though such hocus-pocus May tickle a crocus It’s kind of revolting to me
4 Gee, so it’s gonna be spring, so what? So it’s spring Nitchevo If you’re only a guy with a gleam in his eye And with no one exciting for hand-to-hand fighting It might as well be Halloween See what I mean! So it’s spring
(repeat 3) Each bud that is bursting in bloom Unfolds to the delicate bee And though such hocus-pocus May tickle a crocus It’s kind of revolting to me
(repeat 4, with variation) Yes, it’s gonna be spring, so what? So it’s spring Nitchevo If you’re only a guy with a gleam in his eye And with no one exciting for hand-to-hand fighting It might as well be Halloween See what I mean So it’s spring!
~ lyric transcribed by Jim Radcliff (doc), 7 April 2019, from the 1957 Tommy Wolf recording
Today’s new page is on the song “Like a Breath of Springtime,” written by Joe Burke (music) and Al Dubin (words). The song was copyrighted on 20 May 1929 and used in the 1929 romance film Hearts in Exile, which is considered a lost film.
1929 recordings include those by Roy Ingraham and his Orchestra, Harold “Scrappy” Lambert, Henry Busse and his Orchestra (vocal: Burt Lorin), Sam Lanin Orchestra (vocal: Marvin Young), Pete Woolery, and Adrian Schubert and his Salon Orchestra (vocal: Scrappy Lambert). “Burt Lorin” is a pseudonym for Scrappy Lambert, so Lambert is the vocalist on three of the seven recordings included in the page. Most, if not all, of these recordings were released under the copyright title “Like a Breath of Spring-Time.” I’ve modified the spelling of the last word of the title to conform with modern usage. Here’s a link to the new page:
A verse is sung in the 15 September 1929 Scrappy Lambert recording, as well as in the Pete Woolery and Sam Browne recordings, preceding the chorus. I’d been unable to find the full verse online, so I made the following transcription on 22 March 2019:
Winter blows its breath on the low lands Over every green covered glen All in vain I’ve wandered the snow lands Looking for the sunshine again, then…
Recordings included in the page::
Roy Ingraham and his Orchestra — recorded on 5 August 1929; issued on the 78 rpm single Brunswick 4544, b/w “Deep in the Arms of Love” (w.m. Lou Davis, Roy Ingraham)
Harold “Scrappy” Lambert — recorded 15 September 1929 and issued on the 78 rpm single Brunswick 4556, c/w “When The Real Thing Comes Your Way”
Henry Busse and his Orchestra, vocal: Burt Lorin (pseudonym of Harold “Scrappy” Lambert) — recorded on 20 September 1920; issued 8 November 1929 the 78 rpm single Victor 22140, b/w “Since I Found You” (m. Ray Perkins, w. Herman Ruby) — In the UK, the recording was issued in January 1930 on the B-side of HMV B 5751, the A-side being a recording of “Sunny Side Up” by Johnny Hamp’s Kentucky Serenaders.
Sam Lanin Orchestra, vocal: Marvin Young (pseudonym of Irving Kaufman)– recorded on 26 September 1929 (Columbia matrix W149055); issued on the 10-inch 78 rpm single Harmony 1018-H, c/w “Melancholy”
Pete Woolery, accompanied by violin and piano — recorded on 9 October 1929 (Columbia matrix W149069); issued on Columbia 2004-D, c/w “Deep in the Arms of Love” (w.m. Lou Davis, Roy Ingraham)
Adrian Schubert and his Salon Orchestra, vocal: Harold “Scrappy” Lambert — recorded on 1 November 1929; issued on the following US singles (all except Banner 507, c/w the Irving Berlin song “To Be Forgotten”):
(US) Pathe 37066 – as Adrian Schubert and His Salon Orchestra, acc. to Henry König; as Adrian Schubert SO, acc. 78discography.com
Domino 4447 – as Russ Carlson and His Dance Orchestra, acc. to Henry König, as Adrian Schubert Society Orchestra, acc. 78discography.com
Banner 507 – as Russ Carlson and His Dance Orchestra, acc. to Henry König; as Russ Carlson’s Dance Orchestra, acc. to 78discography.com — c/w “A Waltz That Brings a Memory,” by Willie Creager and his Orchestra
also issued on the French Pathé label on the following single:
Pathé X. 6300, b/w “Lady Luck” (Ray Parkins) – as House Orchestra
Sam Browne — issued on 30 October 1930 on the 78 rpm single (UK) Edison Bell Radio 1388, as the B-side of “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes” (m. Joe Burke, w. Al Dubin)
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Other recordings that I haven’t found yet include those by Dr. Eugene Ormandy’s Salon Orchestra, OKeh 41319, 17 September 1929; Debroy Somers Band, (UK) Columbia CB 90, 2 June 1930; as well as several others by British dance bands and vocalists.
Today I published a short page on the song “In the Spring of the Year,” with music by Alec Wilder and words by Lee Kuhn, including the only four recordings of the song that I’ve found so far. According to WilderWorld podcast 129 the song was written in 1947. However, the copyright date is 20 April 1949. I’ve included a transcription of the lyric that I did today using the 1951 Lee Kuhn recording. In other versions, the order of sections vary, as do the number of times certain sections are sung. Here’s a link to the new page:
In the Spring of the Year (m. Alec Wilder, w. Lee Kuhn)
~lyric transcribed by doc on 30 March 2019, from the 1951 Lee Kuhn recording
In the spring of the year All of a sudden The bloomin’ and buddin’ Get into your blood ‘n’ you sing Not a sigh do you hear in the spring Of the year
In the spring of the year Some hocus-pocus Induces the crocus To blossom and grow ’cause it’s spring There’s a magic that’s queer in the spring Of the year
Birds are singier Vines are clingier Bells are ringier too The sun is sunnier Bees are honeyer Rabbits are bunnier too
In the spring of the year Folks get an itchin’ For wooin’ and hitchin’ Bewitchin’ to beggar and king For the fling of the year in the spring Of the year
Trees are sappier Wings are flappier Laughs are laughier too The moon is moonier Tunes are tunier Dreams are balloonier too
Howdy folks. Today I published a page on the song “When You’ve Got a Little Springtime in Your Heart,” which was written, words and music, by Harry Woods. The song was copyrighted on 28 December 1933 and introduced by Jessie Matthews in the musical film Evergreen, which was released in April 1934 in the UK, 31 December 1934 in the US, and in 1935 in other countries.
Seven of the following nine recordings are included in the page, which can be viewed here:
Jessie Matthews with Orchestra conducted by Bretton Byrd
Bertini & The Tower Blackpool Dance Band, vocal: Maurice Elwin
Ray Noble and his Orchestra, vocal: Al Bowlly
Jack Payne and his Band, vocal: Jack Payne
Joe Loss and his Band, vocal: Harry Case
Roy Fox and his Band, vocal: Denny Dennis
1934-1935
Geraldo and his Sweet Music, vocal: Cyril Grantham – (part of an “Evergreen” medley) issued c. 1934-1935
Billy Merrin and his Commanders, vocal: unidentified – issued in 1934 or 1935
Louis Levy and his Gaumont British Symphony, vocal: Janet Lind — part of a medley of movie music recorded on 10 September 1936
recent recording:
The Pasadena Roof Orchestra — 2013
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The other two recordings will be added when they become available. Here’s a more detailed list of the nine recordings that I’ve indentified:
Jessie Matthews with orchestra conducted by Bretton Byrd — issued on the 78 rpm single (UK) Columbia DB 1404, b/w “(a) Tinkle, Tinkle, Tinkle ; (b) Over My Shoulder”
Bertini and The Tower Blackpool Dance Band, vocal: Maurice Elwin — recorded in London on 22 May 1934 (matrix JW 1891-2); issued on the single (UK) Eclipse 750, c/w “Hot Punch” — “Bertini” was the stage name of the violin-playing, British dance band leader Bertram Harry Gutsell.
Ray Noble and his Orchestra, vocal: Al Bowlly — recorded on 2 July 1934; issued in the UK on the 78 rpm single HMV B.6504, and in the US on the single Victor 24720, c/w “Over My Shoulder” (Harry Woods) in each case
Jack Payne and his Band, vocal: Jack Payne — recorded in April 1934 or July 1934; issued on the 78 rpm single (UK) Rex 8227, b/w “Over My Shoulder”
Roy Fox and his Band, vocal: Denny Dennis — issued in 1934 in the US on the 78 rpm single Decca 275, as the B-side of “Over My Shoulder”
Geraldo and his Sweet Music, vocal: Cyril Grantham — part of an “Evergreen” medley issued c. 1934-1935 on the singles (UK) Columbia DB 1408, and (US) Columbia 3007-D
Billy Merrin and his Commanders, with unidentified vocalist — recording date unknown (British Homophone Company matrix S-3919); issued in 1934 or 1935 on the single (UK) Sterno 1474, c/w “Over My Shoulder” — also issued in 1934 or 1935 on the single (UK) Plaza P-305, under the pseudonym Al Gold and his Band — Credited to Billy Merrin & His Commanders, the recording is also available on the 2012 Amazon digital album Just a Crazy Song.
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Louis Levy and his Gaumont British Symphony, vocal: Janet Lind — part of a medley of movie music recorded on 10 September 1936; issued on the single (UK) Columbia FB 1545 on side 1: “Music From The Movies–Medley, Part 1,” b/w “Music From The Movies–Medley, Part 2”
The Pasadena Roof Orchestra — from the 2013 album Ladies And Gentleman, (Germany) Herzog Records 901038 HER
W2a,b — Image 2b was added to my main Aida Overton Walker page in 2016. Image W2a is a new edit of that image created on 3 March 2019.
1902 – The hairstyle or wig resembles that worn in image W1, which was used on the cover of the sheet music for “I’d like to be a Real Lady,” published in 1902.
1904 — The image was used on the cover of the sheet music for “Why Adam Sinned,” published in 1904.
W3a, b — White Studio #84 — I recently found the image that I’ve labeled W3a at the Beinecke Digital Collections of Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Image W3b (source unknown) is a smaller copy of the same photograph, which I’ve had on my main Aida Overton Walker page since June 2012.
1902 – The hairstyle or wig resembles that worn in image W1, which was created no later than 1902.
1904 — The hairstyle or wig resembles that on the 1904 “Why Adam Sinned” sheet music cover.
W4
1902 – The hairstyle or wig resembles that worn in image W1, which was created no later than 1902.
1904 — The dress, pearl necklace, hairstyle/wig, and earrings worn by Aida each appear to be the same worn in images W3a and W3b. The hairstyle seems to be the same as that in the photo used on the 1904 “Why Adam Sinned” sheet music cover. The hat/headdress appears to be the same as that worn in images W5 and W6.
1901 — The luxurious, ruffle adorned, white dress worn in images W5 and W6 somewhat resembles the dress worn in the illustration on the cover of the sheet music for “Miss Hannah from Savannah,” published in 1901.
1902 – The hairstyle or wig resembles that worn in image W1, which was created no later than 1902.
1904 — The hairstyle seems to be the same as that in the photo used on the 1904 “Why Adam Sinned” sheet music cover. Also, the elaborately decorated hat or headdress seems to be the same one worn in image W4, which is one of the three “pearl necklace” photos (images W3a, W3b, W4, and W7), all of which I’ve tentatively dated 1904 because the hairstyle in each seems to the same as that in the photo used on the 1904 “Why Adam Sinned” sheet music cover.
W6 — White Studio #64 — I recently found this image, which I’ve labeled W6, at the Beinecke Digital Collections of Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
1902 — The hat looks like it might be the same one worn in image W1, which was created no later than 1902, and the hairstyle/wig also resembles that worn in image W1.
1904 — The hairstyle or wig appears to be the same as that in images W2-W6, which may have been created in 1904.
W8a,b,c,d — Images W8a,b, and d are my own edits of images recently found in Yale University’s Beinecke Digital Collections.
1907 – One of the two inscribed photos in the cardboard photo holders is dated 1907, the other 1908. I’m guessing that the photo was taken around 1907. It certainly was no later than that year.
W8a – inscribed “To Mr. & Mrs. [Nora] Holt with love, Aida Overton Walker 1907.”
W8b – inscribed “Yours from Bandana Land Aida Overton Walker 1908.”
W8c – uninscribed edit from unknown source, posted on my main AOW page years ago
W8d – evidently cropped from the image used for W8a
W9a,b — Image 9a was recently found in the NYPL Digital Collections, where it is dated 1911. Image 9b is an edit by me of that image, made by simply removing the brown tint.
1908 — In the article “Black Salome: Exoticism, Dance and Racial Myths,” by David Krasner, which appears as chapter 10 (in part III) of the book African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader, edited by Harry J. Elam, Jr., David Krasner (2001), pp. 192ff., on pp. 203-205, the author claims that what I’ve labeled image W9 shows Overton Walker in the costume that she wore in the Salome dance that she performed with Bert Williams in the 1908 musical revue Bandanna Land, and that for her more modern interpretation of the dance in 1912, she wore a loose-fitting gown, similar to those commonly worn by Isadora Duncan. If Krasner is correct in dating image W9 1908, then image W10 is also from 1908.
The biography of Ada [sic] Overton Walker in the online Performing Arts Encyclopedia of the Library of Congress says:
In 1908 Overton Walker was featured in Williams and Walker’s Bandanna Land, and her dancing continued to draw attention for its gracefulness. Soon after Bandanna Land opened, a new solo, “[T]he Dancing of Salome,” was added for her.
This explains why IBDb does not list that number among the opening night songs of Bandanna Land, which had a run of 89 performances on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre from 2/03/1908 to 4/18/1908.
The book Incidental and Dance Music in the American Theatre from 1786 to 1923 Volume 1 by John Franceschina (2017?), on p. 1907, says that the music for the Bandanna Land number “The Dancing of Salome” was composed and arranged by Joe Jordan.
1912 — Overton Walker performed her latest interpretation of the dance of Salome at the Paradise Roof Garden of Hammerstein’s Victoria Theatre in a production that opened in August 1912.
W10a,b,c — I’ve had these images, source unknown, in my main AOW page since 2012, though a couple of them were updated in 2017.
1908 — See the explanation regarding this date for image W9.
1912 — Overton Walker performed her latest interpretation of the dance of Salome at the Paradise Roof Garden of Hammerstein’s Victoria Theatre in a production that opened in August 1912.
Pages recently withdrawn from circulation on Songbook, either deleted or changed to draft status:
Embraceable You
Goodbye (Gordon Jenkins)
I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)
Just You, Just Me
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
On Green Dolphin Street
Solitude
Other pages removed or deleted in the past few years:
*Top ten Oasis songs (official) – joke
*Cherokee (Indian Love Song)
*Les Paul
*Jayne Mansfield galleries
*The Cat Came Back, Hit the Road Jack, and Stray Cat Strut
*Some additional standards and hits, 1920-1929
*1940s — some additional hits and standards
*Burt Bacharach: selected early songs, 1955-1960, excluding hits
*Burt Bacharach: selected 1961 songs, excluding hits
*Please Stay (Bacharach, Hilliard)
It’s possible that some of the pages that have been moved to draft status rather than deleted may one day be repaired, revised, or otherwise modified sufficiently so that I’d consider publishing them again, but it’s not likely. For a page or post on this site to be sent back to draft status after having been published is usually a death sentence.
Questions
Q: Why are pages deleted or removed from published status?
A: Various reasons. See “too little time” below. I expect to continue to delete as many old pages as I create new pages in the future, although this may change if I upgrade my system.
Q: I noticed that last year you published not one but two pages on “Blackberry Winter” (1),(2), and just this month you published a multiple-page feature on the song “Come Saturday Morning.” Not only that, but you’ve got pages published on pap like the maudlin and melodramatic “Another Tear Falls,” and the utterly inane bubblegum pop song “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” Since Christmas you’ve also done large features on the relatively unknown “I Never Has Seen Snow” and the obscure “I’m Getting Tired So I Can Sleep,” and two pages on the wrong “Porgy” (1),(2). Do you mean to say that you actually prefer these songs to magnificent classics such as George and Ira Gershwin’s “Embraceable You” and Duke Ellington’s “Solitude” and “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)”?
A. Yes. and it’s not even close. But aside from my eccentric tastes there are other factors that have led me to favoring pages on less well-known songs in recent years. Among these are the following:
too many covers to choose from on major standards (e.g. reportedly more than 25,000 covers of “Summertime.”) — My drop-in-the-bucket pick of 15-20 covers of “Summertime” would have no hope of representing the whole, and my take on the song would have little chance of saying anything that hasn’t been said before. In some cases, after days of hunting, I’m able to tally twice as many versions of a lesser-known or forgotten song as is presently listed at SecondHandSongs.com, with its potentially endless group of actively posting members. This is more fun for me, and may contribute (to researchers and the merely curious) something more valuable than my two bits on “Summertime,” possibly even something unique, if only for a short time.
too little time — If I want to continue to create new pages, I’m going to have to forfeit some old pages in order to keep the site viable. This is because the time spent maintaining the site, already excessive, would otherwise reach unsustainable levels. Unlike a typical text-focused site, most of my pages are full of videos. A typical page has 15-20 video players, and some have over 30. The site may have over 10,000 embedded videos. I’ve never counted them, but estimates can be made based upon the number of pages containing multiple videos and the average number of videos per page. YouTube videos, which comprise probably 95% of the videos on this site, tend to have a short shelf-life. They are often disabled without notice for a variety of reasons. The biggest issue with regard to embedding videos straight from YouTube without downloading them first is that they can be, and often are, removed from YouTube by either YouTube itself or the member posting the video there, and without any notice of the action provided until you visit the page or post that the video is on. This happens all the time on YouTube, and less frequently on other video libraries such as Dailymotion, Vimeo, etc.
Reasons for the removal of a video from YouTube are many, include the following:
removal by YouTube due to copyright claim by the owner of the music and/or film footage used in a video
removal by YouTube due to violation of Terms of Service agreement
account deletion by YouTube for violation of TOS
removal by YouTube member, without deletion of account
account deletion by member
If I take the figure of 10,000 as a reasonable estimate of the number of videos presently embedded on the site, and estimate that I can check the status of 500 videos per hour (probably a high estimate due to the slow loading speed on my present setup), while making notes on those missing, then it will take roughly 20 hours to complete the checking and note taking process.
I’ve further estimated that on average 5% of those 10,000 will be found, upon inspection, to be disabled. So that’s an average of 500 videos that will be found in need of replacement during a random check of the whole site. That number would be lower if I had a regular schedule of checking and replacing videos, but I don’t. I check them fairly randomly, periodically.
Replacing videos is the most time-consuming step in the process because it involves in each case searching in online video libraries for a video that corresponds to the exact recording to be replaced, listening to a group of prospective replacement videos (or at least a portion of each of them), and selecting from those found the one of the best quality.
Next, I’ve estimated that at a pace of 4-5 videos replaced per hour it will take 100-125 hours to replace the 500 videos missing at the start of the process.
So the total time to complete the process of checking and replacing videos across the entire site is roughly 20 + 100-125 hours, or 120-145 hours.
How long will that take? At 4 hours per day, 5 days a week, it will take 6-7 weeks. That’s such a length of time that by the time I’m finished with the job of replacement, it’s certain that other videos that were working at the start of the process will have been disabled in the interim. Probably not another 500 that quickly, but the number will be increasing every week. Before long the whole process of checking and replacement must begin all over again.
To me these calculations, while far from precise, serve to illustrate that maintenance of thousands of “borrowed” embedded videos on a site such as this is an endless, very time-consuming process. Do I have any volunteers that want to spend 10 hours a week replacing dead videos?
not a top ten site or a collection of standards only — I began work on this site in early 2009, so it’s been ten years. Although I never considered Songbook a ranking site, during the early years of the site I often did consult other sites which ranked songs by popularity, longevity, etc. before making my selections with the aid of such lists. These crutches helped me to construct the skeleton of the site very quickly. So during those early years I often tended to favor the more lastingly popular songs for each year, and for each songwriter, generally choosing standards. After a few years of building the site in this manner I was thoroughly fed up with creating pages on songs that I dislike, just because they happen to be high on this or that list. I’ve been happily moving away from the tendency to depend on ranked lists in recent years, so much so that the idea of sticking to standards now seems repulsive to me. The mere thought of doing that gives me hives. I’m not saying that I’ll never do a page on a standard again, because I will. But in choosing a song to create a feature page on, knowing whether it has been deemed a standard by those who deem, or rests especially high on somebody’s list of standards, are not the most important factors that I’ll consider.
Other reasons for deleting pages:
irrelevance — The Jayne Mansfield galleries page had become the most popular on the site. It had nothing to do with the rest of the site, nothing to do with music. Basically just T&A. So after a not unpleasant two year ride I bid farewell to Jayne.
jazz standards that are much less well-known outside of the field of jazz — examples: Cherokee, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948), On Green Dolphin Street — I still have others that fall in this category. The axe hovers…
In conclusion allow me a moment to give a warm embrace of thanks to all of my visitors, both those who have been returning like the morning sun for years and the sparkling new ones. Without you, this site would not exist. I could not do it without your interest and support. Best to all of you.
About the site
1890-1899 selected hits and standards
