K-K-K-Katy: the war edition

25 January, 2011 in 1910s | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

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In honour of my new favourite TV series, Downton Abbey, I thought I’d see what, if anything, I could find in the collection from the WWI years.

And I came up with an authentic “war edition” of K-K-K-Katy.  ”To Co-operate with the Government and to conserve paper during the War, this song is issued in a smaller size than usual. Save! Save! Save is the watchword to-day. This is the spirit in which we are working and your co-operation will be very much appreciated. Leo. Feist, Inc.” This is written on the front of the sheet. And in fact, it is quite small: about half the size of a standard piece of sheet music.

Billed as the “Sensational Stammering Song Success Sung by the Soldiers and Sailors”, this song was written by one Geoffrey O’Hara, Army Song Leader. O’Hara was born in Canada, and you can find out a ton of information about him in his Library and Archives Canada entry.

There’s some controversy about when K-K-K-Katy was written: the Library and Archives Canada accounts for two: either it was written in Katy’s living room around 1917, or during the time he was teaching patriotic songs to troops in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia in 1918. Possibly it was both: he probably put the finishing touches on it while in Georgia.

Quickly picked up, it was recorded famously in 1918 by Billy Murray.

Lyrics

Verse 1
Jimmy was a soldier brave and bold,
Katy was a maid with hair of gold,
Like an act of fate, Kate was standing at the gate,
Watching all the boys on dress parade.

Jimmy with the girls was just a gawk,
Stuttered ev’ry time he tried to talk,
Still that night at eight, He was there at Katy’s gate,
Stuttering to her this love sick cry.

Verse 2
No one ever looked so nice and neat,
No one could be just as cute and sweet,
That’s what Jimmy thought, when the wedding ring he bought,
Now he’s off to France the foe to meet.

Jimmy thought he’d like to take a chance,
See if he could make the Kaiser dance,
Stepping to a tune, all about the sil-v’ry moon,
This is what they hear in far off France.

Refrain

K-K-K-Katy, beautiful Katy,
You’re the only g-g-g-girl that I adore.
When the m-m-m-moon shines,
Over the cow-shed,
I’ll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door.

Oh, how sweet. So, I’m thinking now about Downton’s characters going off to war in Series 2, and hoping that the golden-haired maid in that series, Anna, will have her soldier spared. Sighs.


The Schmaltz Waltz

2 January, 2011 in 1950s | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Happy New Year!

An homage to the season: The Winter Waltz, with words penned by Larry Neill. The music was adapted by Neill as well, from the very famous Les Patineurs (The Skater’s Waltz), composed by Emile Waldteufel in 1882.

INTRO/REFRAIN
Come, skate with me,
Let’s take a whirl,
We’ll fly right by ev’ry guy and girl.

Come, float away
till day is through,
Smoothly, I’ll glide side by side with you.

VERSE 1
So why should we care if it’s snowing?
Or if a blizzard is blowing,
Warmly our hearts will be glowing,
On this winter date I’m as warm as in May-time!
Oh let’s let our noses get frozen,
Come be the love I have chosen,
Won’t it be nice when we do break the ice and you fall to the WINTER WALTZ!

REFRAIN
Come skate with me
till day is through,
Life will be grand hand in hand with you.

VERSE 2
The butcher, the baker, the grocer
are holding their lady loves closer.
They know it’s too cold to say “No sir!”
When breezes are chilling the girls are more willing.
From somewhere the music is saying,
“Come where the couples are swaying,”
When snowflakes are dancing it’s time for romancing, you’ll fall to the WINTER WALTZ!

REFRAIN

Larry Neill, born Lorentz Orenstein, is an interesting figure. A trumpeter and vocalist, he adapted this version of The Skaters’ Waltz in 1950, while he was playing in big bands. This was a few years before he started writing music for television series. Eventually, he ended writing music and scripts for The Mickey Mouse Club.

The words befit the music – as cheesy as can be, though perhaps a little racy for the 1950s: the so-called “Decade of Innocence”. I suspect Larry had to sanitize his concupiscent lyrical impulses prior to joining Disney!

I can’t find any recordings of this version, which is a bit odd. It’s a much simpler and easier version of Waldteufel’s waltz. Because of the ubiquity of the Waldteufel piece, I thought perhaps Larry Neill used this in a television program or a movie, but I cannot find any evidence of this.

If you’d like to give the original a listen, here it is. I even found a version with skating.

What, I ask, could be more fun than skating in January?

Neapolitan Nights (Oh, nights of splendor)

30 August, 2010 in 1920s | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Neapolitan Nights (Oh, nights of splendor) – theme song of the William Fox picture “Fazil”, with Charles Farrell and Greta Nissen.
Words by Harry D. Kerr, music by J.S. Zamecnik, who worked often with Kerr. With ukulele arrangement by May Singhi Breen. Published by the Sam Fox Pub. Co., Cleveland, OH: 1925-1926.

Lyrics

1. Twilight is falling in fair Italy,
Stars kiss the sky;
Night stealing near like a soft melody,
Bids day goodbye;
There as I lingered long,

Entered my heart this song:

Refrain:
Oh nights of splendor,
Your charms so tender
Make love surrender
Till stars are gone;
Oh, nights of laughter,
Tho’ tears come after,
Love’s regrets,
love forgets when comes the dawn.

Fair Naples sleeping,
A vigil keeping,
While stars are weeping
As they depart;
Dawn bells are pealing,
while night is stealing
To its nest,
lulled to rest within my heart.

2. Nights of romance in a world made of dreams,
Always ’tis June;
Nights that entrance,
and forever it seems,
Hearts are in tune;
Softly my reverie
Whispers this melody:

Refrain

At first, I wasn’t taken at all with this one. The music is a simple waltz tune, marked Valse moderato (and when I say simple, I mean simple) – it’s  in A minor, modulating to C major for the chorus, and the melody moves mostly by step. The piano part provides a bit of harmony in thirds within the refrain, which later inverts itself and becomes sixths. Yawn.

I played it, and thought a bit more about it. The melody is simple and entirely accessible to almost any singer. The accompaniment as well – it wouldn’t have taken any advanced musical knowledge to play it. And it’s catchy, if a trifle old-fashioned. I’m humming it now. Zamecnik’s genius in composing this song is that it is not only singable, but can easily be made into a duet.

The movie which made this song famous is “Fazil”, a 1928 Howard Hawks silent film synchronized with a pre-recorded score. Fazil follows two people from very different backgrounds and cultures meeting and falling in love: Fazil, an Arab prince, and Fabienne, a European woman. Ah, Orientalism.

From the movie’s score, here is tenor James Melton singing the song:

Now I can’t wait to see the movie, if only to see Greta Nissen swooning in Charles Farrell’s arms, as shown on the cover.

I’m waiting for to-morrow to come

28 June, 2010 in 1910s | Tags: , | Leave a comment

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My life is spent in naught but idle dreaming,
I’m waiting oh! so patiently
For a bright tomorrow I am scheming.
But I guess it ne’er will be;

REFRAIN
I am waiting for tomorrow to come,
But tomorrow seems like years.
All my dreams and schemes I plan upon,
Fade away and disappear.
Fortune always frowns and passes me by,
As each yesterday is done,
I just trust to fate while I watch and wait,
For my tomorrow to come.

‘Tis often said tomorrow brings good fortune,
To one whose clouds are dark today,
But tomorrow only brings me sorrow.
It’s the same as yesterday;

REFRAIN

I wonder what the world was like in 1919. The first world war had ended, and decisions were made in this year that would have lasting implications for the world, to put it mildly. An influenza pandemic was raging, which would claim millions of lives. More people died of influenza than were casualties of the war.1

And Franklyn Hawelka and Max Prival wrote this song: Frank Davis’ lyrics full of a sentiment that seems to be oscillating between optimism and resignation. Like the lyrics, the music contains a bit of a push/pull – verses are melody-driven, and the bass is nearly stagnant. When the long refrain hits, the bass walks. It’s here that the song really gets going, despite the indication “Slowly and with expression” on the refrain. Contrast that with the “moderato” of the verses. The song only briefly hits minor chords, preferring instead interesting dominant and diminished 7th chords.

The overall mood of the song is jaunty and somewhat 19th century in feel, despite its “new” (for the period) chords and chromatic melodies.

I can find very little information on Hawelka, Prival, and Davis.

Try it out – I’ve linked to a PDF version.

Technical details:
A-flat major, 4/4 time
Music by Franklyn Hawelka and Max Prival, words by Frank Davis.
Published 1919 by A.J. Stasny Music, New York.

Download a PDF of the sheet music here, from Indiana State University: Cunningham Memorial Library, Kirk Collection of popular songs (part V: 1918-1922).

1. http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

The Jazz Age, in a box

27 June, 2010 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

music stack
Since I have been feeling unsatisfied with my current (large) collection of sheet music, I troll the classifieds and craigslist quite often. Part of this is just pure silliness, since I have certainly not played everything I own. Part of it is a sense of restlessness with the genre of what I own: I play primarily classical music, and always have done so. Yet I have been feeling, for a few years now, that I’ve missed the boat on something: namely, popular music, jazz, folk, and other underappreciated (by me) genres.

The ad I answered was for a “free box of old music” on craigslist. I wrote to the lady who posted the ad, and without so much as asking what kind of music it was, I volunteered to take it off her hands.

Turns out it’s a musty treasure trove of old songs – 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond. Mostly pop songs, some spirituals, movie music, some country music, songs from musicals, anthologies, sheets, fakebooks: you name it, it’s there.

My aim is to go through one new song each week. I’ll write about the songs as I play them.

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