Here We Come A-wassailing is a traditional English Christmas Carol and New Year song. The song is believed to have been composed around 1850. The song was very popular in the Victorian Era. In old English the world wassaling means to sing carols door to door wishing good health. Wassailing was an ancient rite that Read More
Wyoming
The song, Wyoming ,is the state song of Wyoming. Judge Charles Edwin Winter wrote the words during the summer of 1903. Earle R. Clemens wrote the music soon after. Winter and Clemens copyrighted the song in 1913 with the Wyoming Publishing Company. The song then became the unofficial Wyoming state song. In 1920, George Edwin Read More
On, Wisconsin!
On, Wisconsin! was composed by William T. Purdy in 1909 as “Minnesota, Minnesota”. He planned to enter it into a competition for a new fight song for the University of Minnesota. Carl Beck convinced him to withdraw the song from the contest at the last minute and allow his alma mater, the University of Read More
Do You Hear What I Hear?
“Do You Hear What I Hear? sounds as if it came from the 19th or early 20th Century. So, I was surprised to discover the song was written in October 1962. The song was written as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis, by a married couple, Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker. Read More
Take Me Home, Country Roads
Take Me Home, Country Roads is a popular folk song about West Virginia. The song was written by Bill Danoff, Taff Nivert and John Denver. The trio received a letter from their friend John Albert Fitzgerald who was living in West Virginia at the time. The song was reportedly derived from a poem Fitzgerald wrote Read More
Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bell Rock was written by Joseph Carleton Beal and James Ross Boothe. Both men worked in some form of public relations and advertising. Bobby Helms first released the song in 1957, whose version is still the best known. Jingle Bell Rock is an expansion of the Christmas standard, Jingle Bells. The song references the Read More
Roll On, Columbia, Roll On
“Roll On, Columbia, Roll On” is an American folk song written in 1941 by American folk singer Woody Guthrie. According to Wikipedia, “The song glamorized the harnessing of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. The 11 hydroelectric dams built on the American stretch of the Columbia helped farms and industry, but their construction also Read More
Winter Wonderland
Richard “Dick” Smith was confined to the West Mountain Sanitarium where he battled consumption {tuberculosis} in Philadelphia. He was a Pennsylvania native, from the town Honesdale. During his time of treatment, he sent his jingles in for various contest and ads. He began to dream of all he longed to do once he was better. Read More
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond or “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond” is a well-known traditional Scottish song. The original composer is unknown. The lyrics we know today are not even the original lyrics. The original lyrics are said to be “a Jacobite lament written after the Battle of Culloden.” While there are many theories about the meaning Read More
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny was written by James A. Bland, an African American who wrote over 700 songs. Bland used the same title Edward Christy used in his Christy Minstrels. Bland wrote his version in 1878. In 1916, Alma Gluck was the first celebrity to record the song. A reworded version of the Read More