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A song from the early wave of movie musicals and the first movie made (although not the first to actually be released) by RKO Radio Pictures, 1929's "Street Girl" which was quite a success.
I've kept to the published sheet music for this ukulele songsheet, but Annette Hanshaw changed them a little for her version, as did Charlotte Pelgen in a more recent ukulele cover:
The lyrics as sung by Annette Hanshaw can be found here: https://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/l/loveableandsweet.html
This is a 1924 sequel to (in many respects a direct musical continuation of) a WWI song known as "Inky Pinky Parlez Vous," or more properly "Mademoiselle from Armentières," which went on to form the basis of many increasingly obscene ditties sung in schools, rugby clubs and barracks for decades. The earlier song was always risqué and "What Has Become of Hinky Dinky Parlay Voo?" continued in that cheeky style, although the idea that soldiers overseas might be spending their free time with a succession of *cough* professional ladies barely raises an eyebrow today. The inevitable page of extra choruses is included, but there are almost certainly thousands of others out in the world, as it's such a simple tune to sing and to write for.
This version by Billy Murray and Ed Smalle captures the typical early style and includes the intro.
I expected a few uncommon chords in this one simply because it's a Cole Porter song. I confess that I was completely caught out by the racist language. You've let me down, Mr. P.
The familiar opening line of "Birds do it, bees do it" is not what you get in the original sheet music, nor on early recordings. Instead we have ethnic slurs for Chinese and Japanese people. Apparently CBS requested the change, although I have yet to find out exactly when, and it was quickly adopted generally. Noël Coward rewrote the whole thing more than once, to deliberately scandalous effect, but here I'm sticking with the original text from the sheet music apart from the update to a couple of lines.
Inevitably, the only recordings I've found with the introductory verse also include the unpleasant language, so if you want to learn how the intro goes but avoid that stuff you should stop listening to the linked Lee Morse recording after "It is nature, that's all / Simply telling us to fall in love / And that's why…".
Bygones: Jeno Paulucci closed Duluth Michelina’s plant 20 years ago – Duluth News Tribune
News-Tribune, Jan. 6, 1926 The new village of Keewatin held its first me…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Italiancuisine #1920s #1950's #1970s #2000's #cliffordolson #elnorajohnson #garfieldavenue #Italia #Italian #italiancuisine #italiano #italy #JesseC.Madson #keewatin #maureenbye
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2457210/bygones-jeno-paulucci-closed-duluth-michelinas-plant-20-years-ago-duluth-news-tribune/
"Eileen, the Office Vamp, says:"
https://www.tumblr.com/obsidian-sphere/779429395615105024/from-t-n-t-by-tim-n-tur-january-1925
Love and food, so often deeply connected in Tin Pan Alley popular song, appear again here, where a young man is desperately concerned that the young lady with whom he's been enjoying some amorous attention will measure up in the kitchen. Whether he cares if she too wishes to "indulge in the felicity of unbounded domesticity," as W.S. Gilbert put it, is not addressed.
A fun little number, though, with a jaunty swing to it. Harry Reser appears to have recorded the most widely known versions, but this link goes to a performance by the less famous Bert Lewis, either accompanying himself or with an unnamed pianist.
Time for something a little more bluesy, I think. Rosa Henderson recorded over a hundred songs in roughly nine years, including this powerful number about a woman refusing to be mistreated and facing life on her own terms. Sadly no colourful cover for the sheet music with this one.
In America this song picked up an unexpected and rather accidental political association after it was played at the 1932 Democratic National Convention. With FDR's presidential win (not to mention the repeal of Prohibition) that became a lasting connection that probably still colours the way many in the USA view it.
A pity, as it's not a political number at all—the lyrics are as universal and purely optimistic as can be—and ought really to be taken on its own merits, a great example of the ability of Yellen and Ager to fashion the seemingly simple into something that really grabs people.
As usual, and perhaps more than most songs considering the truly enormous number of different recordings, it's hard to find a performance with the verse, so I've turned once more to Annette Hanshaw although she places it after the chorus. Barbra Streisand also recorded it with the verse at least once, but that was over thirty years later and I don't think it quite captures the lightness and joy of the piece (in fact, it quite deliberately doesn't).
Look neutral everyone! It's the gender police!
I honestly think that the reason strings of pearls were so popular in the 20s is because people spent so much time clutching them. This is a terrific song that gets rediscovered quite regularly, but my word it doesn't half get in a tizzy over roles and clothing. Women playing billiards? Men changing nappies? WHERE WILL IT END?
"Girls were girls and boys were boys when I was a tot" goes one line. Well, given that this was written in 1925 and the practice of infant boys wearing dresses didn't really end until after the Great War (look up the history of "breeching" if you're interested), I'm not sure that's quite the argument you believe it is, chief.
The sheet music ends before the line "Now wifey is playing billiards and pool," but I've included the additional lyrics sung by Irving Kaufman in this 1926 recording:
Play the chord shapes shown on a ukulele tuned ADF♯B if you want to match the original sheet music.
As is the case with the vast majority of his song credits, Al Jolson probably had little to no involvement in the writing of this number but was included as a way to get extra cash. George Formby did the same thing (or rather, his formidable wife and manager Beryl did).
Despite Jolson's recording being well worth a listen, I've linked to Johnny Marvin here as he sticks to the sheet music and includes both verses, which makes it much easier to learn from. It's also a really jumping performance.
A good ol' murder ballad that tells you it has no moral and no end, and which barely has an identifiable origin. The consensus is that "Frankie and Johnny" was based on an actual shooting in 1899, but it wasn't the first and its melody appeared in 1904, then again in 1908, in altered form in a version by the Leighton Brothers who in 1912 published the piece we generally recognise. Frank Crumit revised and recorded it in 1927, largely solidifying it into its current form. Along the way were dozens of variations and scores of different recordings: you can pretty much think of an artist and they'll probably have played it at some point (and if you're thinking, "Well, I bet the Smothers Brothers never did!" then you'd be wrong).
The sheet music from 1935 is in F, but I've chosen to base this version on the 1927 Crumit revision, with the slight changes made by Jimmie Rodgers for his 1929 recording. That puts it in C with only four simple chords, so it benefits from experimenting with a picking style or, if you're Jimmie Rodgers, occasional yodelling.
Clearly popular with the dance bands, this peppy number transfers well to the ukulele in this May Singhi Breen arrangement (play on a GCEA uke for the chords shown, or use the same chord shapes on an ADF♯B tuned instrument to match the original sheet music).
Sophie Tucker recorded it a little earlier, but on the toss of a coin I'm linking to Johnny Marvin's performance with Nat Shilkret's Orchestra. You could always try something very different and look up The Five Locust Sisters' take on it, if you're in the mood.
We could all use a bit of positivity and cheerfulness in these dark days, so—putting aside the fact that the roses on the sheet music cover are white—here's a song with that attitude.
Nick Lucas sings the chorus first, but still includes the full verse so you can follow how it goes. There are many other recordings to be found online, even though the song itself seems to have faded from our cultural memory, and I particularly recommended the spectacular 1927 xylophone version by Teddy Brown.
Originally from a musical comedy, "You're The Cream In My Coffee" is written to be sung in two parts, the first by "Boy" and the second by "Girl," but outside of the show almost nobody follows that. You can find all manner of wonderful interpretations of the song over the years, from Ruth Etting's supremely relaxed version, through any number of dance bands and crooners, via Marlene Dietrich, and on to more recent versions from the likes of The Pasadena Rooftop Orchestra. It's a song with which most of us seem at least passingly familiar, even if we don't always know more than a couple of lines from the chorus.
Ordinarily I make a point of including the intro verses with these old songs, since they are so often neglected and many people don't know that they exist even for familiar tunes. This time I'm making an exception, at least until I can find a complete recording.
This 1927 Leslie Sarony number is not, despite the title, about lard—or not that kind, at least. Sheet music exists for both a UK and a different US version, apparently altered to better fit in a 1928 musical comedy play called "Three Cheers". Despite that, recordings seem scarce. I've found one by Harry Bidgood's Band and this one from Bert Firman's Dance Orchestra, neither of them including more than the chorus:
Come with me now to those heady days of Prohibition, when America's biggest problem was where to get a drink, and Canada opened its cash registers to an influx of desperate Yankee pissheads.
It's a great song from a reliable writing team and fits the uke nicely. I haven't found two sources that agree on the lyrics or which order to sing them (not helped by the inclusion of the "Patter" section where we veer off in a different musical direction: drop it if you don't like it, you won't be the first), so hopefully the recording I've linked to will at least give you an idea of how to sing the individual parts from the song sheet. Some lovely banjo work on this slightly eccentric interpretation by Sleepy Hall's Melody Boys, but search for Ted Lewis and His Band if you want an alternative:
A very peculiar song, with titillation and voyeurism, disapproval, and a narrator who not only builds a fantasy life for himself with the nightie's owner but also might be completely misinterpreting what the various items of laundry represent.
Someone presumably must have recorded it, but I've not found a trace so far. The only audio on the Internet comes from Sheet Music Singer and from someone covering their version on a ukulele, so sadly no period performance but at least we can hear how it should go. Nothing too tricky here: the Cdim7 can easily be ignored, leaving Bb, or possibly Fm depending on which you play less frequently, as the hardest chord; Gdim7 is well worth getting used to, as it slides beautifully into G7 with the appropriate fingering.
"Button Up Your Overcoat" outlived both the Broadway show that spawned it and the early colour movie version that followed, both as the original duet and, more often, as a solo piece. Lyrics changed a little here and there because of that, but generally remained quite faithfull to the original. Perhaps the depression era was never going to be kind to a show that proclaimed itself "A Musical Slice Of Country Club Life," but the daffy sweetness of a couple falling in love and becoming immediately overprotective is rather more broadly relatable.
Helen Kane recorded perhaps the best known solo version, but I'm linking to the 1966 recording by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, because it's marvellous.
Play the same chord shapes on an ADF♯B tuned uke to match the key of the original sheet music, or stick to GCEA and don't worry about it. Go with whatever makes you happy.
Why Be Good? (1929) Dance Remix
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