Most Popular Mando Songs: 1900 - 1930?

[Ed Goist]

By most accounts of the history of the American mandolin, the years of roughly 1900 to 1930 are considered a 'boom time' for the instrument, with many mandolins being sold to Americans.

I wonder what tunes were being played on all of these instruments? IOW, what were some of the most popular mandolin songs in America during this three decade mandolin boom? I think it would be fun to know and play some of these songs.

Thanks;
Ed

[allenhopkins]

I have several of my grandfather's old mandolin books from around 1910. They're full of songs I've never heard of before or since. I can recognize Black & White Rag, Dill Pickles Rag, Shine On Harvest Moon, maybe a couple others, but what to make of Hang Out the Front Door Key, Over On the Jersey Side, Hearts Courageous, Oh! That Navajo Rag, Trolley Car Swing, and so many others? Remember that mandolins were used to play all kinds of music then; some of the books are filled with classical-structured waltzes, gavottes, serenadas, etc.

At least my grandfather must have been pretty good; all the books are the "First Mandolin" part, so he must have played lead. I never heard him play, and while I do have his violin, whatever mandolin he owned is long gone. Much of his mandolin repertoire appears to have been popular tunes of the day, long forgotten now.

[Ed Goist]

Thanks Allen! Great stuff - PLENTY of songs in your post to research...This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Thanks again.

[Jim Garber]

I also have a pile of folios of tunes of the day mostly from around 1910 or so. Lots of forgettable tunes tho a few interesting ones. I stopped buying them. I posted some tunes from that period on my sheet music page.

John Goodin also posted some pdfs of sheet music on his Mandotopia site.

[Bill Foss]

For some great music from that era (and earlier) the Rag Time Skeddadlers have kept alive some real gems. I think Dennis Pash the leader has learned all the music from old sheet music he has researched.

http://www.myspace.com/ragtimeskedaddlers

[Paul Lucas]

As mentioned above, John Goodin's Mandotopia site has a nice collection late 19th and early 20th century mandolin music. The Ragtime Skedaddlers use many arrangements from John's site.

John's site notes that the music originated from the music library of the Chicago Mandolin Orchestra and is now owned by the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra.

- Paul.

[ilenedream]

Whoops

[ilenedream]

There’s a song in my head, the first part of the old time song. There is the word Wind in the title, I can’t recall. It’s
Neverrmind, …ind, it took me a bit to recall its Southwind.

[morgan]

Most popular where? If you were in the mandolin hotbed of Providence RI, the most popular tunes would be available from this thread:

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...t-music/page27

[JeffD]

You might try some of the more prominent mandolin orchestras. They might have some treasures in their archives.

[Jim Garber]

The recent poster posted her query in this 13-year old thread and then remembered the tune she was looking for.

[Mark Gunter]

An interesting thread, anyway. I’ve used the library of Congress site and other archive sites to find PDF folios of period tunes. As you wrote 13 years ago, many of the tunes of that era were pretty vapid. Music publishing became a really big business and anything to earn a dime.

[Peter Coronado]

This one?

[snakehead_a2z]

Here’s one from that period. Doc Roberts and Asa Martin, “Take Those Lips Away.”
https://www.slippery-hill.com/conten...hose-lips-away