Oh! Susanna is a popular American folk song. In 1846, Stephen Foster moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and worked in his brother’s steamship company as a bookkeeper. He wrote Oh! Susanna during this time. “The name Susanna may refer to Foster’s deceased sister Charlotte, whose middle name was Susannah.” Many historians believe he wrote it for Read More
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Beautiful Ohio
Beautiful Ohio was written by Ballard MacDonald in 1918. The music was written by Robert A. “Bobo” King, who used the pseudonym Mary Earl. MacDonald wrote the song as a love song, in the form of a waltz. The melody is partly based on “Song of India” by Rimsky-Korsakov and “Beautiful Dreamer” by Stephen Read More
My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night
“My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!” was written by Stephen Foster. The song was published in January 1853 and believed to have been written the previous year. According to Wikipedia, “In Foster’s sketchbook, the song was originally entitled “Poor Uncle Tom, Good-Night!“, but was altered by Foster as “My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!” Foster likely composed Read More
Swanee River
Old Folks at Home is the state song of Florida. The song is better known as “Swanee River” or “Suwannee River”. The song was written by Stephen Foster in 1851 for a minstrel show. Foster had completed the majority of the lyrics but was still struggling with the opening line. His brother made a few Read More
Desperado
The hit by the Eagles, first appeared on the 1973 album by the same name. Don Henley began writing parts of the song in the late 1960s. After he and Glenn Grey teamed up, the song was finished. This was the first of many songs the duo wrote together. Henley explained in the liner notes Read More
Songs Heard on the Titanic
The White Star Line Songbook Had More than 150 Songs for the musicians to learn. The songs were mainly upbeat and consisted of ragtime and waltzes. Hymns would have been appropriate for Sunday services. The musicians were expected to know all of these songs by memory and play any of them upon request from a Read More