By the Light of the Silvery Moon (song)

"By The Light of the Silvery Moon"
Sheet music cover, 1909
Song
Published1909 by Jerome H. Remick & Co.
Composer(s)Gus Edwards
Lyricist(s)Edward Madden

"By The Light of the Silvery Moon" or "By the Light of the Silv'ry Moon" is a popular love song. The music was written by Gus Edwards, and the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1909 and first performed on stage by Lillian Lorraine in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was also used in the short-lived Broadway show Miss Innocence (September 27-October 9, 1909) when it was sung by Frances Farr.

Popular recordings in 1910 were by Billy Murray and The Haydn Quartet; Ada Jones; and The Peerless Quartet.

The song has been used in a great many television shows and motion pictures. In 1935, the song in short was used in the Charles Laughton film Ruggles of Red Gap in a segue. Later, the movie of the same title was released in 1953, starring Doris Day. It served as a sequel to On Moonlight Bay, which also starred Doris Day.

The song was originally recorded in C major, but has since been sung in E major (Day) and A major (Jimmy Bowen).

Parody

Billy Murray recorded the song Stand Up and Sing for Your Father an Old Time Tune in 1923. The lyrics of Murray's song parody By the Light of the Silvery Moon, portraying an old man who found this new song frivolous.

Oh, I'm sick of all these ditties about "moon" and "spoon" and "June"
So, will you stand up, and sing for your father, an old time tune!

Recordings

Film appearances

In popular culture

  • The song was featured in a 1931 Fleischer Studios "Follow the bouncing ball" cartoon, that featured Betty Boop and the voice of Eddie Cantor. An earlier Fleischer cartoon "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (1926) was released in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process, as part of the Song Car-Tunes series.
  • In a 1952 episode of I Love Lucy, "Lucy's Show Biz Swan Song", the song was sung by Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz (Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance), while the characters were auditioning for Ricky's "Gay Nineties Revue".
  • The song's patter is parodied in a popular The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Audience Participation line for the song "Eddie". lines like "By the light (not the dark but the light)" become lines like "From the day he was born (not the night but the day)" and "She tried in vain (not the artery but the vein)".
  • In the January 27, 1976 episode of the ABC sitcom Happy Days, titled "Fonzie The Superstar", restaurant owner Arnold (Pat Morita) and Laverne and Shirley (Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams), stall for time by singing the song (very badly) onstage, for a teen audience waiting for Fonzie (Henry Winkler) to come out and sing.
  • In an All in the Family episode (S6 E15), Archie Bunker and Barney Hefner sang the song as part of a minstrel show.
  • The song is featured in the second episode of Boardwalk Empire.
  • In 1991, the song is briefly sung by a group of human-themed Muppets called "The Three D's" in the preshow of Muppet*Vision 3D.
  • Kidsongs, included in the music video Let's Put on a Show (1995).
  • In the Bear in the Big Blue House episode ‘’And to All a Good Night’’, Bear and Shadow sing the song to wake up Tutter. Shadow sings the first half of the song before appearing. This is also used as instrumental background music for a scene involving the Harvest Moon Festival.
  • An impromptu version of the song appears in the sixth episode (S1 E06) of the Channel 4 sitcom GameFace (2017).

In the late 1970s/early 80s this song was a favourite of the travelling Grangemouth No1 supporters bus.


This page was last updated at 2023-09-09 04:07 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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