1925: The Most Popular Songs Of The Year

1925 was another very interesting year with an abundance of classic songs that have survived until today and are still reissued, recorded and performed. Although it was in the midst of the so-called "Roaring 20s" only one of the five most successful songs happened to be a rhythm song, the other four were ballads. Two of them were rather old-fashioned - "Moonlight And Roses" and "I'll See You In My Dreams" - but the other two were modern radio ballads by Irving Berlin: "All Alone" and " You Forgot To Remember". These were among his greatest songs and in fact in the years 1924 to 1927 Berlin always had at least one song among the Top 5: "What'll I Do" (1924), these two in 1925, "Always" (1926), "Blue Skies" and "Russian Lullaby" (1927).

This year also saw two songwriting teams having their first great hits. Lady Be Good by the Gershwins - starring Fred & Adele Astaire - was a great success on Broadway and "Oh! Lady Be Good" and "Fascinating Rhythm", both introduced by Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards, became very popular.

The Garrick Gaieties was the first successful stage show for Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart. "Manhattan" with its complex lyrics became one of key song for the further development of songwriting. Only Cole Porter had to wait a little longer. His "I'm In Love Again" - written for the show "The Greenwich Village Follies" - only became a minor hit 2 years later in 1927

Most successful musical of the year was Rose Marie with music by Rudolf Friml and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto Harbach. "Indian Love Call" was the most popular song from this show (and was later revived for example by Jeannette MacDonald, Artie Shaw and Slim Whitman).


1. "All Alone" (Irving Berlin)

mp3: John McCormack
mp3: Al Jolson

"All Alone" is one of Irving Berlin's most beautiful songs. It starts with one of the bleakest depictions of loneliness and longing ever:

Just like a melody that lingers on
You seem to haunt me night and day

[...]

All Alone

I'm so all alone,

There is noone else but you

and ends with:

Wondrin' where you are,

And how you are

And if you are
All alone too.

Berlin was a master of minimalism, a songwriter who cut the lyrics of his love songs down to its barebones and wrote sad songs for lonesome listeners that were tailor made for the new media like the radio:

"Radio [...] was the perfect vehicle for the new kind of 'sob ballad' Irving Berlin had been writing. Intimate, introspective, reflective, the radio, like the phonograph called for ballads aimed at the solitary listener [...] In 1924, 'What'll I Do?' was sung over the radio by Frances alda and 'All Alone' was introduced by John McCormack, reaching millions of listeners without the extensive plugging network of Tin Pan Alley [..] Berlin portrays the singer in a lonely room [...] The tiltle itself is a commonplace phrase in which Berlin discerned a singable and memorable faceting of sound: 'All Alone.' Such repetitive syllables, words and phrases mirror the self-enclosed lyrical 'space' of both singer and listener of such radio and phonograph ballads" (Furia, Irving Berlin, p. 104/5)

2. "Moonlight And Roses" (Lemare, Black & Moret)

YouTube or mp3: John McCormack

The melody was adapted by the lyricists Neil Moret [i.e. Charles N. Daniels] and Ben Black from the "Andantino in D Flat", a very popular organ piece by Edwin Lemare (1888) without having asked for permission. Only after threatening with legal action Lemare managed to receive his share of the royalties.


3. "I'll See You In My Dreams" (Kahn/Jones)

YouTube: Isham Jones & His Orchestra

The music was written by the popular bandleader Isham Jones while the words were added by Gus Kahn, a lyricist very busy during these years. This is another song that is performed until today, a "cherished farewell song, a favorite when played as the last number at a dance" (Hischak, Tin Pan Alley Encyclopedia, p. 172). Chet Atkins later turned it into a guitar instrumental.


4. "Remember" (Irving Berlin)

YouTube and mp3: Franklyn Baur

YouTube: John McCormack

mp3: Isham Jones Orchestra

Later recordings are also available on YouTube: Cliff Edwards (1943), Red Norvo Orchestra (1937, instrumental)

This is another sad and poignant lament. The refrain consists of only three sentences, two of them questions: a poor guy is adressing the girl who had promised and vowed "by all the stars above" but now she acts as if they've never met. The song is built on the juxtaposition "you promised [...] but you forgot" and is effectively debunking a romantic hyperbole, the promise of eternal love. The careful use of dissonant sounds - uncommon for that era - gives the song an additional dimension.

Remember the night

The night you said, I love you

Remember?

Remember you vowed

By all the stars above you

Remember?

Remember we found a lonely spot

And after I learned to care a lot

You promised that you’d forget me not

But you forgot

To remember.

Bob Dylan later used this song as a kind of blueprint for his own "I Don't Believe You" (1964).



5. "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" (Kahn/Donaldson)

YouTube: Gene Austin
mp3: Lee Morse

This is another song with lyrics by Gus Kahn, who was inspired to write it while playing "with a mechanical pig belonging to one of [Eddie Cantor's] daughters. The openenig line of the song to the jerky rhythm of the toy, came to Kahn in a flash" (Paymer, Sentimental Journey, p. 83)

Other hits:

mp3: Cliff Edwards, "Lady Be Good" (George & Ira Gershwin)
mp3: Fred & Adele Astaire, "Fascinating Rhythm" (recorded in 1926 with George Gershwin himself playing the piano)

mp3: Ben Selvin's Knickerbockers, "Manhattan" (Rodgers & Hart)

mp3: Paul Whiteman Orchestra, "Manhattan"
I found only instrumental performances from the mid-20s. The definitive vocal performance of this songs is for me still Lee Wiley's (1951, here on YouTube)

mp3: Isham Jones Orchstra, "Indian Love Call"

YouTube: Richard Tauber, "Indian Love Call" (recorded 1927)

See also later versions for example by Jeannette MacDonald & Nelson Eddy (1936, YouTube) Artie Shaw (1938,YouTube).

mp3: Eddie Cantor, "If You Knew Susie" (see also Eddie Cantor singing this song in the movie of the same name, 1948, on YouTube )
mp3: Cliff Edwards, "If You Knew Susie" (DaSylva/Meyer)

mp3: Ethel Waters, "Sweet Georgia Brown" (Pinkard/Bernie/Casey)
mp3: Isham Jones Orchestra, "Sweet Georgia Brown"

Literature & Sources:

• Philip Furia, Irving Berlin. A Life In Song, New York 1998
• Marvin Paymer, Sentimental Journey. Intimate Portraits Of America's Popular Songs 1920 - 1945, Darien, CT 1999
• Thomas S. Hischak, The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia, Westport, CT & London 2002
• Many thanks to all those people who have posted all this music at he Internet Archive and at Youtube.
• Based again on the data found in: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs Of The Twentieth Century. Vol. 1: Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900 - 1949, St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2000

All parts of this series:

1919
1921
1911