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' She May Have Seen ^':
..-Better Days ^
WHEN ALL'S
v
T
IT'S
P
OLD FAVORITES OF
THE GAY '90s
But Its Dre<
T
AKE a trip along Broadway, the
modern "Tin Pan Alley," or what-
ever you may care to call that sec-
tion of New York in which is centered
the popular music publishing business,
and you will find serious-minded young
men, and older ones, too, discussing, and
without a smile, the change in public
sentiment regarding popular songs and
the heavy thinking that is required on
the part of publishers to meet that senti-
ment. If you are easily impressed you
will leave with a feeling that the weight
of the musical world is on the shoulders
of the popular song writer, but if you
have looked into the matter of popular
songs during the last half-century you
will be more inclined to laugh a little
bit.
As a matter of fact, there has been
remarkably little change in the calibre
of popular songs or in the manner in
which they are presented to the public
during the past fifty years or more,
although there have been many changes
in the methods of popularizing numbers,
particularly with the advent of radio
and talking pictures and the decrease in
the number of vaudeville singers.
No better illustration of the little
change that has taken place in the pop-
ular song and its presentation can be
found than in a glance at the various
title pages introduced in connection with
this article. Here we have a number of
title pages of old favorites popular dur-
ing the last century, and although some
of the younger folks may not be familiar
with the tune of the "Mulligan Guard"
of Harrigan & Hart days or the words
of "She May Have Seen Better Days"
they can at least rest assured that the
sentiments expressed, although topical in
THE
MUSIC
some cases, were very much the same
sentiments that are presented in the pop-
ular songs of this day.
The "My Gal Is a High-Born Lady"
of the nineties may be compared to
"Strut Miss Lizzie" or "My Baby Just
Cares for Me," both of which have had
a fair run during the past year or so.
"She May Have Seen Better Days" was
not much different in character from
"Just the Kind of a Girl That Men
Forget" of 1930, and the "When You
Were Sweet Sixteen" as presented by
whisky tenors a quarter of a century ago
is comparable to "Sweet Jennie Lee"
that is even now being heard over the
radio.
There have been changes in tempo to
correspond with the popularity of the
fox-trot as compared with the old two-
step, and to the slowing down of the
waltz to a point where it is more of a
shuffle than a dance, but when all is said
and done what pleased the masses in the
gay nineties is just about the same sort
of music as pleases them to-day.
Even the art of presenting the song
through a characteristic or artistic title
page has not made any revolutionary
progress, as will be seen from another
glance at the title-page illustrations
herewith. Naturally, the printing is
better, the illustrations sharper and
clearer, but basically there is very little
difference between the title page on the
"Boston Minstrels" songs of the seven-
ties and Rudy Vallee's song hit of to-
day, "99 Out of a Hundred Wanna Be
Loved," or between "She May Have
Seen Better Days," which grandpa and
grandma sang, and "Blue Again," which
is doing so well for the publisher to-
dav. This is not criticism of the mod-
TRADE
REVIEW,
March,
1931