Re: "Danny Boy" on Shamrock Day?

Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing wrote:
> In article <ve6dnTxC7rlo7UjanZ2dnUVZ_rHinZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Kip Williams
<kiptw@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
>> Kip Williams wrote:
>>> Italian songs, on the other hand, seem to be mostly written by
Italians. 
>>> Go figure.
>> Obvious exceptions are stereotype joke songs, like "I No Speeka Good 
>> English" by Billy Jones and Ernie Hare, or anything involving organ 
>> grinders (with or without monkeys).
> 
> I read a book called "A Passion for Polka" which in part discussed the
US
> ethnic-music recording industry of the early 1900s, which was often the
same
> companies who recorded and distributed what we think of as pop-music.
(As a
> side note there, the author mentioned that Irving Berlin wrote a bunch
of 
> ethnic-music hits in different ethnicities - Italian, Polish, etc.)

Archive.org has a trove of these songs, along with a wide selection of 
popular and classical records of the time.

The gulf between these wasn't so pronounced then, it seems. The man in 
the street knew at least some tunes from operas, having heard them from 
the fantastically popular Caruso or other entertainers, if not in actual 
operas. There were also music boxes and barrel organs transmitting the 
greatest hits from opera.

I still love that when Sidney Bechet recorded his knockout version of 
"Summertime" (which is possibly the only operatic air that has been 
recorded by Janis Joplin), the first full chorus he takes is a growly, 
but note-for-note literal, rendition of "Miserere" from Verdi's "Il 
Trovatore."

Kip W