where was tin pan alley in new york city
West 28th Street
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Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The name originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the Flower District of Manhattan; a plaque (see below) on the sidewalk on 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth commemorates it. The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in the
Tin Pan Alley
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Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The name originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in the Flower District of Manhattan; a plaque (see below) on the sidewalk on 28th Street between Broadway and Sixth commemorates it. The start of Tin Pan Alley is usually dated to about 1885, when a number of music publishers set up shop in the
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songs rather than hymns or classical music. Naturally, these firms were located in the entertainment district, which, at the time, was centered on Union Square. Witmark was the first publishing house to move to West 28th Street as the entertainment district gradually shifted uptown, and by the late 1890s most publishers had followed their lead. The biggest music houses established themselves in New York City, but small local publishers – often connected with commercial printers or music stores – continued to flourish throughout the country, and there were important regional music publishing centers in Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis, and
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Payton, Sophie and Freddie Alexander. The Tin Pan Alley Rag The Tin Pan Alley Rag is a 2009 biographical musical play produced by The Roundabout Theatre Company. The play is set in 1915 and is about Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin and their careers at the Tin Pan Alley in New York City. It was written by Mark Saltzman and directed by Stafford Arima. In the New York version, the lead role of Irving Berlin was played by Michael Therriault and that of Scott Joplin by Michael Boatman. Irving Berlin, Scott Joplin, Willie, Rev. Alexander, Dorothy Goetz, Monisha, Jimmy Kelly,
The Tin Pan Alley Rag
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The Tin Pan Alley Rag The Tin Pan Alley Rag is a 2009 biographical musical play produced by The Roundabout Theatre Company. The play is set in 1915 and is about Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin and their careers at the Tin Pan Alley in New York City. It was written by Mark Saltzman and directed by Stafford Arima. In the New York version, the lead role of Irving Berlin was played by Michael Therriault and that of Scott Joplin by Michael Boatman. Irving Berlin, Scott Joplin, Willie, Rev. Alexander, Dorothy Goetz, Monisha, Jimmy Kelly, Mooney Mulligan, Teddy Snyder, Mr.
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than it did in World War II. Jones, on the other hand, argues that "there is also strong documentary evidence that the output of American war-related songs during World War II was most probably unsurpassed in any other war." Leading Tin Pan Alley composers and lyricists include: Tin Pan Alley's biggest hits included: Notes Bibliography Further reading Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The name originally referred
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The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley is an album by pianist Uri Caine which was released on the Winter & Winter label in 1999. In his review for Allmusic, Ken Dryden notes that "Pianist Uri Caine's work is always intriguing, but this CD is something very different. "Sidewalks of New York" comes off like the soundtrack to an as yet unmade documentary about Tin Pan Alley at the turn of the century, complete with sound effects of horses and people on the street, folks celebrating in a rowdy saloon, and
The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley
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so on". On All About Jazz C. Michael Bailey said ""The Sidewalks of New York" is an impressionistic documentary of late 19th and early 20th century popular music. Not music of the 1920s, the music of the pre -1920s. Each piece flows into the next, often with the background of street and bar noises, all providing a ambiance of a bustling city's life". The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley is an album by pianist Uri Caine which was released on the Winter & Winter label in 1999. In his review
The Sidewalks of New York: Tin Pan Alley
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laws late in the century, songwriters, composers, lyricists, and publishers started working together for their mutual financial benefit. Songwriters would literally bang on the doors of Tin Pan Alley businesses to get new material. The commercial center of the popular music publishing industry changed during the course of the 19th century, starting in Boston and moving to Philadelphia, Chicago and Cincinnati before settling in New York City under the influence of new and vigorous publishers which concentrated on vocal music. The two most enterprising New York publishers were Willis Woodard and T.B. Harms, the first companies to specialize in popular
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was eventually incorporated in New York and changed its name to Harms, Inc. in 1921. "Tin Pan Alley" was a specific area in New York City on 28th Street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue that, at the turn of the 20th century, was the epicenter of the popular music publishing industry. Many publishing firms were not actually located on that particular block, but, "Tin Pan Alley" was also as much a reference to a music industry district as it was to a music genre (popular music, ragtime – the precursor to what became jazz). T.B. Harms & Francis, Day, &
T. B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc.
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group of publishers and song-writers in New York City that came to be known as Tin Pan Alley. Tin Pan Alley's representatives spread throughout the country, buying local hits for their publishers and pushing their publisher's latest songs. Song demonstrators were fixtures at department stores and music stores across the country, and traveling song demonstrators made circuits of rural areas. The industry was driven by the profits from the sales of sheet music. A piano was considered a must in any middle-class or higher home. Major 19th century Tin Pan Alley hits included "Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage"
Music history of the United States in the late 19th century
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Plains, NY. Theodora Morse Theodora Morse (July 11, 1883 - November 10, 1953) was an American song writer and composer. She was a Tin Pan Alley lyricist who collaborated to produce a number of popular songs. Alfreda Theodora Strandberg was born in Brooklyn, New York. On March 7, 1907, she married Theodore F. Morse (1873–1924). She and her husband became a successful songwriting team for Tin Pan Alley. Listed as Terriss & Morse, they were one of the earliest Tin Pan Alley husband-wife songwriting teams. Theodora not only wrote with her husband, but also collaborated with other composers. Professionally, she
Theodora Morse
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Theodora Morse Theodora Morse (July 11, 1883 - November 10, 1953) was an American song writer and composer. She was a Tin Pan Alley lyricist who collaborated to produce a number of popular songs. Alfreda Theodora Strandberg was born in Brooklyn, New York. On March 7, 1907, she married Theodore F. Morse (1873–1924). She and her husband became a successful songwriting team for Tin Pan Alley. Listed as Terriss & Morse, they were one of the earliest Tin Pan Alley husband-wife songwriting teams. Theodora not only wrote with her husband, but also collaborated with other composers. Professionally, she often used
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Tin Pan Alley Novice Quartet Contest each year in varying locations in New York City. A large number of quartets, many assembled specifically for the event, sing one song each in pursuit of their goal to "Win the Tin." Despite the somewhat informal nature of the event, a panel of accredited judges from the Barbershop Harmony Society adjudicate the event. In addition to standard Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, the winning quartet is also awarded the coveted Tin Pan, an antique tin pan inscribed with the quartet names of all prior champions. Voices of Gotham Voices of Gotham (VoG) is
Voices of Gotham
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were, like the "Ziegfeld Follies", a series of songs and skits that had a profound effect on the subsequent development of Broadway musical theater and the songs of Tin Pan Alley. Tin Pan Alley was an area called Union Square in New York City, which became the major center for music publishing by the mid-1890s. The songwriters of this era wrote formulaic songs, many of them sentimental ballads. During this era, a sense of national consciousness was developing, as the United States became a formidable world power, especially after the Spanish–American War. The increased availability and efficiency of railroads and
American popular music
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in Elmont, New York. Mitchell Parish Mitchell Parish (born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky; July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist. Parish was born to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the "SS Dresden" when he was less than a year old. They settled first in Louisiana where his paternal grandmother had relatives, but later moved to New York City. By the late 1920s Parish was a well-regarded Tin Pan Alley lyricist in New York City. His best-known works include the lyrics to songs such as
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be plugged. At Shapiro Bernstein, Louis Bernstein recalled taking his plugging crew to cycle races at Madison Square Garden: "They had 20,000 people there, we had a pianist and a singer with a large horn. We'd sing a song to them thirty times a night. They'd cheer and yell, and we kept pounding away at them. When people walked out, they'd be singing the song. They couldn't help it." When vaudeville performers played New York City, they would often visit various Tin Pan Alley firms to find new songs for their acts. Second- and third-rate performers often paid for rights
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to use a new song, while famous stars were given free copies of publisher's new numbers or were paid to perform them, the publishers knowing this was valuable advertising. Initially Tin Pan Alley specialized in melodramatic ballads and comic novelty songs, but it embraced the newly popular styles of the cakewalk and ragtime music. Later on jazz and blues were incorporated, although less completely, as Tin Pan Alley was oriented towards producing songs that amateur singers or small town bands could perform from printed music. In the 1910s and 1920s Tin Pan Alley published pop-songs and dance numbers created in
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can. I'll call the article 'Tin Pan Alley'." With time, this nickname was popularly embraced and came to describe the American music publishing industry in general. The term then spread to the United Kingdom, where "Tin Pan Alley" is also used to describe Denmark Street in London's West End. In the 1920s the street became known as "Britain's Tin Pan Alley" because of its large number of music shops. In the mid-19th century, copyright control of melodies was not as strict, and publishers would often print their own versions of the songs popular at the time. With stronger copyright protection
Tin Pan Alley
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Mitchell Parish Mitchell Parish (born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky; July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist. Parish was born to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the "SS Dresden" when he was less than a year old. They settled first in Louisiana where his paternal grandmother had relatives, but later moved to New York City. By the late 1920s Parish was a well-regarded Tin Pan Alley lyricist in New York City. His best-known works include the lyrics to songs such as "Star Dust", "Sweet Lorraine",
Mitchell Parish
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1914 to aid and protect the interests of established publishers and composers. New members were only admitted with sponsorship of existing members. The term and established business methodologies associated with Tin Pan Alley persisted into the 1960s when innovative artists like Bob Dylan helped establish new norms. Referring to the dominant conventions of music publishers of the early 20th century, "Tin Pan Alley is gone," Bob Dylan proclaimed in 1985, "I put an end to it. People can record their own songs now." During the Second World War, Tin Pan Alley and the federal government teamed up to produce a
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the sound of many pianos (comparing them to the banging of tin pans). Others claim it arose from songwriters modifying their pianos to produce a more percussive sound. After many years, the term came to refer to the U.S. music industry in general. Various explanations have been advanced to account for the origins of the term "Tin Pan Alley". The most popular account holds that it was originally a derogatory reference by Monroe H. Rosenfeld in the "New York Herald" to the collective sound made by many "cheap upright pianos" all playing different tunes being reminiscent of the banging of
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He stopped selling his songs through midwestern publishers, moved to New York City, and turned to Willis Woodward and Company, a New York City music publisher located in the area that later became known as Tin Pan Alley. Woodward and Company printed "nearly three dozen" of Dresser's songs. Dresser continued traveling with "The Two Johns" show until the end of 1889 and composed music after the show season ended. In 1890 Dresser began performing in "A Tin Soldier". Managed by Frank McKee, the Charles Hale Hoyt production was in its fourth season when Dresser joined the twelve-member cast. Dresser, who
Paul Dresser
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have their editorial offices based in the city. New York is home to the corporate headquarters of such publishing giants as: Among other national leaders based in New York city are "Newsweek", owned by The Newsweek Daily Beast Company", and Rolling Stone", published by Wenner Media. In the 1930s, New York-based RCA was the nation's largest manufacturer of phonographs. In the late 19th and early 20th century, most sheet music in the United States — especially the popular songs of the day, many now standards — was printed at Tin Pan Alley, so called because the constant sound of new
Media in New York City
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Harry Carroll Harry Carroll (November 28, 1892, in Atlantic City, New Jersey – December 26, 1962, in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania) was an American songwriter, pianist, and composer. Carroll taught himself how to play the piano and began playing in movie houses before he finished grade school. After he graduated from high school, he moved to New York City, where he worked as an arranger in Tin Pan Alley and at night entertained at the Garden Café and accompanied various vaudeville shows. He contributed the song (lyric by Ballard MacDonald) "Nix on the Concertina, Lena" to the Ziegfeld Follies of 1910.
Harry Carroll
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Dan W. Quinn Dan W. Quinn (November 1860 – November 7, 1938) was one of the first American singers to become popular in the new medium of recorded music. Quinn was a very successful recording artist whose career spanned 1892 to 1918. Quinn recorded many of his hits in the legendary Tin Pan Alley of New York City. Dan W. Quinn was born in 1860 in New York City. His family moved to San Francisco when he was a child, but returned to New York in the 1870s (leading to later confusion as to his birthplace). He began singing in
Dan W. Quinn
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the United States. The city was a center of jazz in the 1940s, abstract expressionism in the 1950s, and the birthplace of hip hop in the 1970s. The city's punk and hardcore scenes were influential in the 1970s and 1980s. New York has long had a flourishing scene for Jewish American literature. The city is the birthplace of many cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art; abstract expressionism (also known as the New York School) in painting; and hip hop, punk, salsa, freestyle, Tin Pan Alley, certain forms of jazz, and (along with Philadelphia) disco in
New York City
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that Therriault will appear as Irving Berlin, alongside Michael Boatman as Scott Joplin, in "The Tin Pan Alley Rag", which centers around the imagined meeting of the two great musicians. "The Tin Pan Alley Rag" is presented by Roundabout Theatre Company in New York, June 12 to September 6, 2009. Michael Therriault Michael Therriault is a Canadian actor. He attended Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto, Sheridan College in Oakville, and was a member of the inaugural season of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training in Stratford, Ontario. After spending seven seasons at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Therriault
Michael Therriault
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Boston. When a tune became a significant local hit, rights to it were usually purchased from the local publisher by one of the big New York firms. The song publishers who created Tin Pan Alley frequently had backgrounds as salesmen. The background of Isadore Witmark was selling water filters. Leo Feist had sold corsets, and Joe Stern and Edward B. Marks had sold neckties and buttons respectively. The music houses in lower Manhattan were lively places, with a steady stream of songwriters, vaudeville and Broadway performers, musicians, and "song pluggers" coming and going. Aspiring songwriters came to demonstrate tunes they
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Vandersloot Music Publishing Company Vandersloot Music Publishing Company was an American publisher of marches, waltzes, rags, religious music, and popular music of the Tin Pan Alley genre. The firm was founded in 1899 by Frederick William Vandersloot, Jr. (1866–1931) and his brother, Caird Melvill Vandersloot (born 1869). F. W. Vandersloot was a gospel singer, composer, and choir director. In 1913, the firm was based at 233 West 3rd Street, Williamsport, Pennsylvania with an office in New York at 41 W 18th Street, an area ten blocks directly south of what then became known as Tin Pan Alley. For many years,
Vandersloot Music Publishing Company
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shows, and the two moved to Los Angeles, California where they befriended Buddy De Sylva and Al Jolson. Jolson encouraged Friend and Richman to move to New York City, where they became part of Tin Pan Alley. Friend collaborated with leading songwriters Dave Franklin, Abel Baer, Lew Brown, Irving Caesar, Sidney Clare, Billy Rose and Charles Tobias, and Jolson assisted Friend by placing songs in the musicals he was acting in, including "The Passing Show" and "Bombo." Friend's first hit was in 1923, called "You Tell Her - I Stutter" and co-written with Billy Rose, it was recorded by The
Cliff Friend
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Gaiety Theatre (New York City) The Gaiety Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 1547 Broadway in New York City from 1909 until 1982, when it was torn down. The office building that housed the theatre, the Gaiety Building, has been called the Black Tin Pan Alley for the number of African-American songwriters, who rented office space there. It was designed by Herts & Tallant and owned by George M. Cohan. The theatre introduced revolutionary concepts of a sunken orchestra (the previous configuration had the orchestra on the same level as the seats in front of the stage) and also not
Gaiety Theatre (New York City)
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trio's songs. In 2000, a revue of Henderson's music called "It's the Cherries" opened in New York City as the inaugural show of the American Composer Series. Ray Henderson Ray Henderson (born Raymond Brost, December 1, 1896 – December 31, 1970) was an American songwriter. Born in Buffalo, New York, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley. He was one third of a successful songwriting and music publishing team with Lew Brown and Buddy De Sylva from 1925 through 1930, responsible for several editions of the revue called "George White's Scandals" and
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same district of Manhattan. The end of Tin Pan Alley is less clear cut. Some date it to the start of the Great Depression in the 1930s when the phonograph, radio, and motion pictures supplanted sheet music as the driving force of American popular music, while others consider Tin Pan Alley to have continued into the 1950s when earlier styles of American popular music were upstaged by the rise of rock & roll, which was centered on the Brill Building. The origins of the name "Tin Pan Alley" are unclear. One account claims that it was a derogatory reference to
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Tin Pan Alley Cats Tin Pan Alley Cats is a 1943 animated short subject, directed by Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of Warner Bros.' "Merrie Melodies" series. A follow-up to Clampett's successful "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs", released earlier in 1943, "Tin Pan Alley Cats" focuses upon contemporary themes of African-American culture, jazz music, and World War II, and features a caricature of jazz musician Fats Waller as an anthropomorphic cat. The short's centerpiece is a fantasy sequence derived from Clampett's black and white "Looney Tunes" short "Porky in Wackyland" (1938). Like "Coal Black", "Tin Pan
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Grant Clarke Grant Clarke (May 14, 1891, Akron, Ohio – May 16, 1931, California) was an American songwriter. Clarke moved to New York City early in his career, where he worked as an actor and a staff writer for comedians. He began working on Tin Pan Alley, where he contributed music to films such as "The Jazz Singer" (1927), "Weary River" (1928), "On with the Show" (1929) and "Is Everybody Happy?" (1929). He wrote the lyrics to the show "Dixie to Broadway", and also contributed to the 1921 "Ziegfeld Follies" and "Bombo". Later in his career he became a charter
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Bernice Petkere, and Kay Swift, she was one of the first successful Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood female songwriters. Fields was born in Allenhurst, New Jersey, and grew up in New York City. In 1923, Fields graduated from the Benjamin School for Girls in New York City. At school, she was outstanding in the subjects of English, drama, and basketball. Her poems were even published in the school's literary magazine. Her family was deeply involved in show business. Her father, Lew Fields, was a Jewish immigrant from Poland who partnered with Joe Weber to become one of the most popular
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early ragtime works. He died in New York City of pneumonia and is buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. F. W. Meacham Frank White Meacham (May 31, 1856 – December 22, 1909) was an American composer and arranger of Tin Pan Alley. Meacham was born in Brooklyn, New York. His most famous work is "American Patrol" (1885), a popular march. Written originally for piano, it was then arranged for wind band and published by Carl Fischer in 1891. It was later arranged for Glenn Miller's swing band by Jerry Gray, and was also arranged by composer
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the city. These companies included sheet music publishers, based around an area called Tin Pan Alley, and later record labels and other organizations and institutions. The rise of the Broadway theatres began in the early part of the century; the songs from Broadways musicals became some of the earliest American popular music, and eventually came to be treated as pop standards. As the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, New York City was populated by Dutch settlers who left little musical trace behind, excepting some songs such as "Dutch Prayer of Thanksgiving," "Rosa," and "The Little Dustman." Under English rule, sea
Music of New York City
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City. He died in Culver City, California on November 8, 1949. Baskette was a part of the Tin Pan Alley movement of music. In 1918, there was a focus on music called "goodbye songs" referring to U.S. soldiers who were deployed to France during World War I. One of Baskette's most notable works was "Goodbye Broadway, Hello France," which was a hit song of the period. Leo Feist, Inc. Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., New York Berlin & Snyder, Inc. H. Waterson, New York McCarthy & Fisher, Inc. J. Albert & Son Milton Weil Music Co., Chicago Harold Rossiter Music Co.,
Billy Baskette
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Bernard Bierman Bernard "Bernie" Bierman (August 26, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American composer of popular songs. Bierman was born in New York City. He studied pre-law and law at NYU and Brooklyn Law School, passing the bar in 1930. He practiced law until 1942 when he joined the U.S. Army where he served until 1945. After the war he was part of Tin Pan Alley, writing a multitude of songs that were performed by such artists as Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Billy Eckstine, Harry James, Guy Lombardo, Sammy Kaye, Xavier Cugat and Jimmy Heath. Two of his
Bernard Bierman
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Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc. Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc. was, during the 1920s, one of the largest music publishers of popular sheet music in the country. The firm was based in New York City. What began as the Ted Snyder Company in 1908 evolved into Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc., in 1918 when its founder, Ted Snyder (1881–1965), took on two partners – Henry Waterson (1873–1933) and Irving Berlin (1888–1989). Berlin had been Ted Snyder's staff lyricist since 1909. "Tin Pan Alley" was a specific area in New York City on 28th Street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue that,
Waterson, Berlin & Snyder, Inc.
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Hy Zaret Hy Zaret (born Hyman Harry Zaritsky, August 21, 1907 – July 2, 2007) was an American Tin Pan Alley lyricist and composer best known as the co-author of the 1955 hit "Unchained Melody," one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. Zaret was born in New York City and attended West Virginia University and Brooklyn Law School, where he received an LLB. He scored his first major success in 1937, when he teamed up with Saul Chaplin and Sammy Cahn to co-write the pop standard "Dedicated to You." The early 1940s brought some collaborations with Alex
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troupe in 1893. He also performed in minstrel shows early in his career. In 1897 Murray made his first recordings for Peter Bacigalupi, the owner of a phonograph company in San Francisco. As of 2010 none of Murray's cylinder records with Bacigalupi are known to have survived. In 1903, he started recording regularly in New York City and New Jersey area, where major record companies in the U.S. as well as the Tin Pan Alley music industry were concentrated. In 1906, he recorded the first of his popular duets with Ada Jones. He also performed with Aileen Stanley, the Haydn
Billy Murray (singer)
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Louis Hirsch Louis Achille Hirsch, also known as Louis A. Hirsch and Lou Hirsch (November 28, 1887 – May 13, 1924), was a popular composer of songs and musicals in the early 20th century. Hirsch was born in New York City. In his senior year at the City College of New York, Hirsch traveled to Europe to study piano at Berlin's Stern Conservatory, with pianist Rafael Joseffy. He returned to the U.S. in 1906 and began working as a staff pianist in the Tin Pan Alley publishing houses of Gus Edwards, and Shapiro-Bernstein. He also began to write some of
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sing along at the chorus. Lottie Gilson died June 10, 1912 in New York City. Lottie Gilson Lottie Gilson (1862 – June 10, 1912) was a popular comedian and vaudeville singer of the 1880s and 1890s. She was billed as "The Little Magnet" in recognition of her ability to attract and engage audiences. Due to her popularity, she was much sought-after by Tin Pan Alley publishers to boost sheet music sales. Songs particularly associated with Gilson include "The Sunshine of Paradise Alley", "The Little Lost Child", and "My Mother Was a Lady". She was born Lydia Deagon in Basel, Switzerland.
Lottie Gilson
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Alley M. Witmark & Sons M. Witmark & Sons was a leading publisher of sheet music for the United States "Tin Pan Alley" music industry. The firm of Marcus Witmark & Sons was established in New York City in 1886. The father, Marcus Witmark, was the legal head of the company; but from the beginning it was run by his sons Isidore, Julius, and Jay, who were under legal age when the company started (ranging in age from 17 to 14 years old). They started out publishing their own compositions. They were adept at "plugging" songs, and within a few
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in the movie "Edward Scissorhands", starring Johnny Depp. His early song "He's So Unusual" was covered by Cyndi Lauper on her breakout album, the similarly titled "She's So Unusual." Silver died on November 24, 1966, in New York. Abner Silver Abner Silberman (28 December, 1899, New York City, New York, United States - 24 November, 1966) as pen name Abner Silver, was an American songwriter who worked primarily during the Tin Pan Alley era of the craft. Usually composing the music while others handled the lyrics, Silver wrote for half a century, starting with World War I–era songs such as
Abner Silver
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Percy Wenrich Percy Wenrich (January 23, 1887 – March 17, 1952) was a United States composer of ragtime and popular music. Born in Joplin, Missouri to Daniel Wenrich and Mary Ray, he left for Chicago in 1901 where he attended classes at the Chicago Musical College. Wenrich moved on to New York City around 1907 to work as a Tin Pan Alley composer, but his music retains a Missouri folk flavor. He composed at least eighteen rags, including "Ashy Africa," "Noodles," "Peaches and Cream" (1905), "Crab Apples," and "The Smiler" (1907). His songs include "Wabash Avenue After Dark" and the
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was located in Brill Building's first floor on Broadway.. Brill Building The Brill Building (built 1931 as the Alan E. Lefcourt Building and designed by Victor Bark Jr.) is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It is famous for housing music industry offices and studios where some of the most popular American songs were written. It is considered to have been the center of the American music industry that dominated the pop
Brill Building
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the postal service helped disseminate ideas, including popular songs. Some of the most notable publishers of Tin Pan Alley included Willis Woodward, M. Witmark & Sons, Charles K. Harris, and Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern. Stern and Marks were among the more well-known Tin Pan Alley songwriters; they began writing together as amateurs in 1894. In addition to the popular, mainstream ballads and other clean-cut songs, some Tin Pan Alley publishers focused on rough and risqué. Coon songs were another important part of Tin Pan Alley, derived from the watered-down songs of the minstrel show with the "verve
American popular music
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on DVD through the "Warner Archives" collection. Tin Pan Alley Cats Tin Pan Alley Cats is a 1943 animated short subject, directed by Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of Warner Bros.' "Merrie Melodies" series. A follow-up to Clampett's successful "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs", released earlier in 1943, "Tin Pan Alley Cats" focuses upon contemporary themes of African-American culture, jazz music, and World War II, and features a caricature of jazz musician Fats Waller as an anthropomorphic cat. The short's centerpiece is a fantasy sequence derived from Clampett's black and white "Looney Tunes" short "Porky in
Tin Pan Alley Cats
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Gottschalk's music reflected the cultural mix of his home city, New Orleans, Louisiana, which was home to a variety of Latin, Caribbean, African American, Cajun, and Creole music. He was well acknowledged as a talented pianist in his lifetime, and was also a known composer who remains admired though little performed. The New York classical music scene included Charles Griffes, originally from Elmira, New York, who began publishing his most innovative material in 1914. His early collaborations were attempts to use non-Western musical themes. The best-known New York composer was George Gershwin. Gershwin was a songwriter with Tin Pan Alley
Music of the United States
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piano for her children. After two years of lessons, at age 14, Gorney was offered a job as a pianist at a local Nickelodeon. He worked his way through the University of Michigan (Class of 1917), and the University of Michigan Law School (Class of 1919), as a pianist. His studies were interrupted by World War I, during which he enlisted in the Navy. After graduating, he practiced law only briefly, then turned instead to his love of music, relocating with his wife to New York City, where he began his song writing career on Tin Pan Alley. He contributed
Jay Gorney
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and his songwriting partner was Billy Goldenberg. Midway through the summer season of 1958, Goldsteinn discovered that his songs were being especially well received and decided to work as a solo songwriter after Tamiment. He moved to New York City shortly thereafter and became an assistant to Burt Shevelove. A social encounter with songwriter John Gluck Jr. in 1959 led to Bobb’s introduction to the legendary Brill Building, then the heart of America’s Tin Pan Alley, where Goldsteinn and Gluck soon began peddling their tunes. They had little success and Bobb decided to move back to Philadelphia to concentrate on
Bobb Goldsteinn
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major New York composers were William Fry and George Frederick Bristow, who in 1854 famously criticized the Philharmonic for choosing European composers over American ones. Bristow was committed to developing an American classical music tradition. His most important work was the "Rip Van Winkle" opera, which most influentially used an American folktale rather than European imitations. The best-known New York composer, indeed, the best-known American classical composer of any kind, was George Gershwin. Gershwin was a songwriter with Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway theatres, and his works synthesized elements of many styles, including the music of New York's Yiddish
Culture of New York City
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century, when a number of avant-garde performers helped created styles such as hard bop and free jazz. Later still, New York was the major American home for the punk rock and new wave movements, and was the scene for the invention of both hip hop music and Latino salsa music. Musicians from New York have also dominated the Jewish-American klezmer scene, the Greenwich Village old-time music revival, and the straight 1960s pop music exemplified by the Brill Building sound. Tin Pan Alley was a center for music publishing around the turn of the 20th century. Numerous professional songwriters lived in
Music of New York City
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York City's Tin Pan Alley. Kid Pan Alley Kid Pan Alley is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Washington, Virginia founded by Paul Reisler of the band Trapezoid in 1999 that provides group songwriting residency programs to children in schools across the United States. Kid Pan Alley's mission is "to inspire and empower children to work together to become creators of their own music and to rekindle creativity as a core value in education". Founder & Artistic Director, Paul Reisler, guides the students through the group songwriting process and together they complete the songs in two class periods. The
Kid Pan Alley
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died. Dan Quinn died of intestinal cancer at the W 20th St apartment in New York on November 7, 1938 at age 79. The following is a partial list of Dan W. Quinn's recordings: Dan W. Quinn Dan W. Quinn (November 1860 – November 7, 1938) was one of the first American singers to become popular in the new medium of recorded music. Quinn was a very successful recording artist whose career spanned 1892 to 1918. Quinn recorded many of his hits in the legendary Tin Pan Alley of New York City. Dan W. Quinn was born in 1860 in
Dan W. Quinn
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with the score for Rupert Brooke's "Wai Kiki," the ballet "Sho-Jo, or — the Spirit of Wine, A Symbol of Happiness", and his orchestral composition "The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan". Besides Griffes, New York composers included Marion Bauer, Leo Ornstein, and Rubin Goldmark, all three of whom were either Jewish immigrants or the children of Jewish immigrants. The best-known New York composer — indeed, the best-known American classical composer of any kind — was George Gershwin. Gershwin was a songwriter with Tin Pan Alley and the Broadway theaters, and his works were strongly influenced by jazz, or rather the precursors
Music of New York City
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worked on Tin Pan Alley in New York City where he worked closely with songwriter Paul Dresser and transcribed song arrangements. Within a few years he had secured a post with the publishing firm set up by Thomas B. Harms (1860-1906), arranging, plugging songs, and doing some songwriting; his song "Cupid's Garden", published under the pseudonym Max Eugene, was successful in 1901. Harms sold his share in the family publishing firm in 1904 to Max and his younger brother Louis Dreyfus (1877-1967), who had joined him in the US. The two brothers retained the company name T. B. Harms, and
Max Dreyfus
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honors from Carnegie Mellon University, he set off for New York City where he made his Broadway debut in "Love! Valour! Compassion!". He has acted in films, like shorts "Maggie Moore" and "Soledad", and has appeared in many television series, including "Six Feet Under", "Inconceivable", "Mister Sterling" and "Lipstick Jungle". Noroña has also landed roles on theatre stages. He played role of Irving Berlin in "The Tin Pan Alley Rag" both on the Pasadena Playhouse theatre and the Coconut Grove Playhouse. The role landed him a nomination at the Los Angeles Ovation Award. He also had the lead role of
David Norona
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Brill Building The Brill Building (built 1931 as the Alan E. Lefcourt Building and designed by Victor Bark Jr.) is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood. It is famous for housing music industry offices and studios where some of the most popular American songs were written. It is considered to have been the center of the American music industry that dominated the pop charts in the early 1960s. The building is 11
Brill Building
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such nationally famous sports heroes as Babe Ruth and Bill Tilden. Fun-loving Tammany Mayor Jimmy Walker presided over a period of prosperity for the city, with the proliferation of the speakeasy during Prohibition. Tin Pan Alley developed toward Broadway, and the first modern musical, Jerome Kern's "Show Boat", opened in 1927, as the theater district moved north of 42nd Street. During this time, New York City became known for its daring and impressive architecture, including notably the skyscrapers which transformed the skyline. The race to the sky culminated in the dueling spires of two Art Deco icons—the Chrysler Building and
History of New York City (1898–1945)
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benefit. New York City publishers concentrated on vocal music. The biggest music houses established themselves in New York City, but small local publishers – often connected with commercial printers or music stores – continued to flourish throughout the country. An extraordinary number of East European immigrants became the music publishers and songwriters on Tin Pan Alley-the most famous being Irving Berlin. Songwriters who became established producers of successful songs were hired to be on the staff of the music houses. The late-19th century saw a massive explosion of parlor music, with ownership of, and skill at playing the piano becoming
Sheet music
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F. W. Meacham Frank White Meacham (May 31, 1856 – December 22, 1909) was an American composer and arranger of Tin Pan Alley. Meacham was born in Brooklyn, New York. His most famous work is "American Patrol" (1885), a popular march. Written originally for piano, it was then arranged for wind band and published by Carl Fischer in 1891. It was later arranged for Glenn Miller's swing band by Jerry Gray, and was also arranged by composer Morton Gould. Meacham lived in New York City for much of his life. Many of his works were military marches, tribute pieces, and
F. W. Meacham
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Harry S. Miller Harry S. Miller (born 1867 – 20th century, date unknown) was an American lyricist, composer, and sometimes playwright who lived in New York and Chicago in the 19th and early 20th centuries and is best known for his song "The Cat Came Back", published in 1893. Born in Philadelphia in 1867 to Isaac D. Miller and Amelia Straub, Miller was the second of four brothers. He was raised in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and moved to New York City in 1896 to further his career as a lyricist. Miller's songs were part of Tin Pan Alley, and were sold
Harry S. Miller
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was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of dance band musician Mal Keller and his wife Reva. He learned the accordion and piano, and worked in a camera repair store at the age of 15 following his father's death. He also began playing in dance bands, and started writing songs with his friend Paul Kaufman. In the mid 1950s, he started hanging around the Brill Building, the heart of "Tin Pan Alley" in New York City, and was introduced to lyricist Lee Cathy. Their first collaboration, "Just Between You and Me", was recorded by The Chordettes and became a
Jack Keller (songwriter)
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Al Piantadosi Al Piantadosi (born John Alberto Joseph Piantadosi) August 18, 1882 New York City – April 8, 1955 Encino, California) was an American composer of popular music during the of Tin Pan Alley. He started out as a saloon and vaudeville pianist and rapidly flourished as a songwriter. For about ten years — from 1918 to 1928, he was an independent music publisher. Piantadosi was born August 18, 1882, in the Italian Quarter of Manhattan, New York. Early in his career "(" 1906), Piantadosi gained recognition as "Ragtime Al," playing piano at Callahan's Dance Hall on Manhattan's at Chatham
Al Piantadosi
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Johnny Bothwell Johnny Bothwell (May 23, 1919, Gary, Indiana – September 12, 1995, Lakeland, Florida) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader. Bothwell played in Chicago in 1940 and then moved to New York City, playing with Woody Herman (1943) and Sonny Dunham (1944–46). He was a key member and featured soloist of Boyd Raeburn's groups in 1944–45, and played with Gene Krupa in 1945. He formed his own groups between 1945 and 1949, and held a residency at the Tin Pan Alley Club in Chicago as well as in New York and Boston. Bothwell gave up music after
Johnny Bothwell
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Leo Feist Leopold Feist (1 March 1869 New York City – 21 June 1930 Mount Vernon, New York) founded and ran a music publishing firm bearing his name that — in the 1920s, at the height of the golden age of popular music — was among the seven largest publishers of popular music in the World. Feist marketed his publications very aggressively, even by Tin Pan Alley standards. He maintained offices in most major cities, each with a regional manager (in Boston, for instance, his delegate was Billy Lang). Favored employees were rewarded with corporate largesse; in 1914, for instance,
Leo Feist
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(1911–1996) – Leo and Bessie's son – was a music publisher, copyright expert, and advocate for the music publishing industry. Leo Feist Leopold Feist (1 March 1869 New York City – 21 June 1930 Mount Vernon, New York) founded and ran a music publishing firm bearing his name that — in the 1920s, at the height of the golden age of popular music — was among the seven largest publishers of popular music in the World. Feist marketed his publications very aggressively, even by Tin Pan Alley standards. He maintained offices in most major cities, each with a regional manager
Leo Feist
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Ray Henderson Ray Henderson (born Raymond Brost, December 1, 1896 – December 31, 1970) was an American songwriter. Born in Buffalo, New York, Henderson moved to New York City and became a popular composer in Tin Pan Alley. He was one third of a successful songwriting and music publishing team with Lew Brown and Buddy De Sylva from 1925 through 1930, responsible for several editions of the revue called "George White's Scandals" and such book musicals as "Good News", "Hold Everything!", and "Follow Thru". After De Sylva's departure, Henderson continued to write with Brown through 1933. Then, he worked with
Ray Henderson
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various jobs like restaurant reviewer, process server, classified ad salesman for the "New York Herald Tribune", political cartoonist for "The Tuckahoe Record", sketch writer for Keith Vaudeville Circuit, knit-goods editor for "Women’s Wear Daily", press representative for a small movie company, and city editor for a short-lived newspaper in New Rochelle, New York called " New Rochelle News". After his many various jobs, he decided that he wanted to write in Tin Pan Alley and signed several contracts with music publishers before his contracts were eventually terminated. His first song credit is listed as "In Love with the Memory of
Frank Loesser
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that its status has declined in recent years, due to a combination of increased corporate control over music media, an increase in the cost of living, and the rise of local music scenes whose success is facilitated by the cheap communication provided by the Internet. New York has been a center for the American music industry since the earliest records in the early 20th century. Since then, a number of companies and organizations have set up headquarters in New York, from the Tin Pan Alley publishers and Broadway to modern independent rock and hip hop labels, non-profit organizations, and others.
Music of New York City
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hooky and beefy to impress. Really corking stuff, in short." They further made note of "Shaka Bundu" as being "one of the most country’s most feted house albums," while "Sowetan LIVE" called it a "seminal album." Anton Spice of "The Vinyl Factory" called the album "Penny Penny’s definitive Shangaan Disco record." The re-release allowed Penny Penny to revive his musical career, and he began playing a string of international live shows, including at Tin Pan Alley, New York City, in May 2014, where he performed with a ten-piece band, and at the Sydney Opera House a month later. He released
Shaka Bundu
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Saul Chaplin Saul Chaplin (February 19, 1912 – November 15, 1997) was an American composer and musical director. He was born Saul Kaplan in Brooklyn, New York. He had worked on stage, screen and television since the days of Tin Pan Alley. In film, he won three Oscars for collaborating on the scores and orchestrations of "An American in Paris" (1951), "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954) and "West Side Story" (1961). Following education at New York University's School of Commerce, where he studied accounting, Chaplin joined the ASCAP and started out penning tunes for the theatre, vaudeville and for
Saul Chaplin
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featured Blanche Ring, her brother Cyril Ring, and Will Rogers, Jr. Hoschna's popular songs include: Hoschna died on 23 December 1911 in New York City, leaving an estate of $6,424, and was buried 26 December 1911 at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. Karl Hoschna Karl Hoschna (1876–1911) was a Tin Pan Alley-era composer most noted for his songs "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine", "Every Little Movement" and "Yama Yama Man", and for a string of successful Broadway musicals. Hoschna was born on 16 August 1876 in Kuschwarda, Bohemia, and educated in Austria at the Vienna Conservatory of
Karl Hoschna
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to write a war song that would appeal both to civilians and the armed forces." By the end of the war, no such song had been produced that could rival hits like "Over There" from World War I. Whether or not the number of songs circulated from Tin Pan Alley between 1939 and 1945 was greater than during the First World War is still debated. In his book "The Songs That Fought the War: Popular Music and the Home Front", John Bush Jones cites Jeffrey C. Livingstone as claiming that Tin Pan Alley released more songs during World War I
Tin Pan Alley
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effort should benefit from any draft legislation. As the war progressed, those in charge of writing the would-be national war song began to understand that the interest of the public lay elsewhere. Since the music would take up such a large amount of airtime, it was imperative that the writing be consistent with the war message that the radio was carrying throughout the nation. In her book, God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War, Kathleen E.R. Smith writes that "escapism seemed to be a high priority for music listeners," leading "the composers of Tin Pan Alley [to struggle]
Tin Pan Alley
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Tin Pan Alley (film) Tin Pan Alley is a 1940 musical film directed by Walter Lang and starring Alice Faye and Betty Grable as vaudeville singers/sisters and John Payne and Jack Oakie as songwriters in the years before World War I. Alfred Newman received the 1940 Academy Award for Best Musical Score for his work on the film, the first of his nine Oscars. The film was also nominated for American Film Institute's 2006 list of the AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals. Before filming began, there was said to be a feud between Faye and Grable, although the two actresses had
Tin Pan Alley (film)
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the 1960s, a new type of music appeared, different from the Tin Pan Alley music school, but moulded by it. It was no longer written by the old established songwriters of Tin Pan Alley, but by young people. They helped to establish the new teen idols and wrote the so-called "teeny bopper songs", which "blend soft rock with pop ballad, is not explicitly physical and only hints at sexual interaction. The difference that the 70s' "Teeny Bopper syndrome" had with prior idol phenomena was that these new teen idols were directed at even younger girls, down to 15 years old,
Teenybopper
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Abner Silver Abner Silberman (28 December, 1899, New York City, New York, United States - 24 November, 1966) as pen name Abner Silver, was an American songwriter who worked primarily during the Tin Pan Alley era of the craft. Usually composing the music while others handled the lyrics, Silver wrote for half a century, starting with World War I–era songs such as 1918's "You Can't Blame the Girlies (They All Want to Marry a Soldier)," and continuing through the decades with such classics as 1921's "I'm Going South", 1925's "Chasing Shadows" and 1940's "How Did He Look?" Silver frequently teamed
Abner Silver
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music performers to attain widespread popularity was a Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, who toured the US in the mid-19th century. In addition to living room amateur music-making during the 19th century, more people began getting involved in music during this era by participating in amateur choirs, joining brass bands or playing in amateur orchestras. The centre of the music publishing industry in the US during the late 19th century was in New York's 'Tin Pan Alley' district. The Tin Pan Alley music publishers developed a new method for promoting sheet music: incessant promotion of new songs. One of the
Popular music
729015
symphonic jazz. The methods of dance bands marked a step away from New Orleans jazz. With the exception of Jelly Roll Morton, who continued playing in the New Orleans style, bandleaders paid attention to the demand for dance music and created their own big bands. They incorporated elements of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, ragtime, and vaudeville. Duke Ellington led his band at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Fletcher Henderson's career started when he was persuaded to audition for a job at Club Alabam in New York City, which eventually turned into a job as bandleader at the Roseland Ballroom. At
Big band
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refers to what in German is more precisely called the »Refrainzeile« (refrain line): a lyric at the beginning or end of a section that is repeated in every iteration. In this usage, the refrain does not constitute a discrete, independent section within the form. A large number of Tin-Pan Alley songs using thirty-two bar form are central to the traditional jazz repertoire. In jazz arrangements the word "chorus" refers to the same unit of music as in the Tin Pan Alley tradition, but unlike the Tin Pan Alley tradition a single song can have more than one chorus. Von Appen
Refrain
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he began cultivating his talent for songwriting. After his discharge, Woods settled in New York City and began his successful career as a songwriter. Woods's first songwriting success came in 1923 with the song "I'm Goin' South", written with Abner Silver, which became a hit song in 1924 for Al Jolson. The same year, "Paddlin' Madelin Home" was published, with words & music by Woods. By 1926, Woods was an established songwriter on Tin Pan Alley and would become legendary with his new song "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)". The song was an instant hit
Harry M. Woods
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her own on acoustic guitar. Performing around Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City, Susan began making a name for herself in the folk scene of the early 1990s. She recorded five albums from 1993 to 2001, and in 2001 she moved to Chicago. Her first five albums were all in the folk genre, but Werner's sixth album, "I Can't Be New" (2004), was a substantial departure, with original material in the vein of Tin Pan Alley, cabaret, and early jazz torch songs. Werner's seventh album, "The Gospel Truth", was released in March 2007 and addresses themes of religion, faith, social
Susan Werner
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Joseph E. Howard Joseph Edgar Howard, known as Joe Howard (February 12, 1870May 19, 1961) was a Broadway composer, lyricist, and librettist. A famed member of Tin Pan Alley along with wife and composer Ida Emerson as part of the song-writing team of Howard and Emerson, his hits included "Hello! Ma Baby" and Broadway musicals like "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now?". Joseph Howard was born on February 12, 1870 (or 1871), in New York City. He grew up in a gang-terrorized part of the city and was frequently beaten by his father. His mother died when he was 8
Joseph E. Howard
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months before the death of Fats Waller in December 1943. Following the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, United Artists withheld "Tin Pan Alley Cats", along with the rest of the "Censored Eleven", from American television in 1968. Turner Entertainment (today owned by AT&T's WarnerMedia) acquired the rights to these cartoons in 1986, and has continued to withhold it from release. Of the cartoons included in the Censored Eleven, animation historians and film scholars are quickest to defend the two directed by Bob Clampett: "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" and "Tin Pan Alley Cats". The former, a jazz-based parody
Tin Pan Alley Cats
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elder brother of American lyricist and songwriter Hal David. David died in 1993 in his Rancho Mirage, California home and his remains are buried at the Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. David was born on July 5, 1912 in New York City to a Jewish family. David originally planned to become an attorney and attended Cornell University and St. John's University Law School. Despite these original goals, in the mid-1940s, David began writing songs for New York's Tin Pan Alley. These initial successes prompted David to move to Hollywood, California, to work in the film and
Mack David
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never met. On the first day of production, the actresses quickly got along and became lifelong friends. Tyrone Power and Don Ameche were considered for the leading roles, but scheduling conflicts took them out of the running. Tin Pan Alley (film) Tin Pan Alley is a 1940 musical film directed by Walter Lang and starring Alice Faye and Betty Grable as vaudeville singers/sisters and John Payne and Jack Oakie as songwriters in the years before World War I. Alfred Newman received the 1940 Academy Award for Best Musical Score for his work on the film, the first of his nine
Tin Pan Alley (film)
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recording studio in New Jersey largely ended the local Edison retailers early practice of producing recordings in small numbers for regional markets, and helped concentrate the USA recording industry in the New York City – New Jersey area, already the headquarters of the nation's Tin Pan Alley printed music industry. In 1902, Edison's National Phonograph Company introduced Edison Gold Moulded Records, cylinder records of improved hard black wax, capable of being played hundreds of times before wearing out. These new records were under the working title of "Edison Hi-Speed Extra Loud Moulded Records", running at the speed of 160 RPM
Edison Records
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Chicago C. Bayha Music, New York (Charlies Anthony Bayha; 1891–1957) Harms, Inc. Bobbins Music Corp., New York Billy Baskette Music Co., New York Publisher unknown Mason Music Company, New York Joe Davis, Inc., New York (Joseph Morton Davis; 1896–1978) Mort Beck Music Co. Billy Baskette Billy Baskette ("né" William James Baskette; October 20, 1884 – November 8, 1949) was an American pianist and composer who wrote popular songs of the Tin Pan Alley era. He also wrote one of the most successful World War I war songs, "Good Bye Broadway, Hello France". Baskette was born on October 20, 1884 in
Billy Baskette
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"Goodbye, My Lady Love", featured in the original production of "Show Boat" (1927). Joseph E. Howard Joseph Edgar Howard, known as Joe Howard (February 12, 1870May 19, 1961) was a Broadway composer, lyricist, and librettist. A famed member of Tin Pan Alley along with wife and composer Ida Emerson as part of the song-writing team of Howard and Emerson, his hits included "Hello! Ma Baby" and Broadway musicals like "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now?". Joseph Howard was born on February 12, 1870 (or 1871), in New York City. He grew up in a gang-terrorized part of the city and
Joseph E. Howard
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Charles K. Harris Charles Kassel Harris (May 1, 1867 – December 22, 1930) was a well regarded American songwriter of popular music. During his long career, he advanced the relatively new genre, publishing more than 300 songs, often deemed by admirers as the "king of the tear jerkers". He is one of the early pioneers of Tin Pan Alley. Harris was born in Poughkeepsie, New York into a family of ten children. His father was a fur trader and moved the family to Saginaw, Michigan and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he grew up. From his early fascination with the banjo, he
Charles K. Harris
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Crook opening on Broadway. The show Out of Bondage was a big hit in this decade as it helped spread a noble image of reconstruction. This was a new genre which would come into greater prominence until it became the largest segment of the music industry in the Tin Pan Alley era. The Tin Pan Alley era had of course not begun yet and the influence of Broadway musicals on popular music at the time was no more than that of opera. The 1870s saw the expansion of the British Music Hall genre. Those who wrote music began more than
1870s in music
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1972, Whitcomb returned to the UK where he began his writing career with "After the Ball". He later wrote "Tin Pan Alley, A Pictorial History" (1919–1939) and a novel, "Lotusland: A Story of Southern California". Returning to Hollywood, Whitcomb starred in and wrote "L.A.–My Home Town" (BBC TV; 1976) and "Tin Pan Alley" (PBS; 1974). He also provided the music for a documentary film, "Bugs Bunny: Superstar" (UA), which was narrated by Orson Welles. For Play-Rite Music he cut 18 piano rolls that were included in an album, "Pianomelt". His other albums reflected his research into the genres of ragtime,
Ian Whitcomb
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sell them through the firms on Tin Pan Alley. Dresser's songs and acts were usually sad and melodramatic, but a few were romantic and silly. At the height of the Panic of 1893, Dresser formed a partnership with Frederick Haviland and Patrick Howley as a silent partner in Howley, Haviland and Company. The New York City firm published Dresser's works, while he recruited new songwriters and encouraged singers to perform the company's songs. Dresser stopped traveling and performing during the summer so he could focus on composing music and promoting the new company. In 1894 he invited his younger brother
Paul Dresser
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Tarriers" in 1888, believed to have been written by an unskilled laborer turned stage performer named Thomas F. Casey. Coon songs were another important part of Tin Pan Alley, derived from the watered-down songs of the minstrel show with the "verve and electricity" brought by the "assimilation of the ragtime rhythm." The first popular coon song was "New Coon in Town," introduced in 1883, and was followed by a wave of "coon shouters" such as Ernest Hogan and May Irwin. The early 20th century also saw the growth of Broadway theatre, a group of theatres specializing in musicals. Broadway became
Music of New York City
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American Boychoir School in Princeton, New Jersey, studying voice and piano, and would sing "Gershwin, Schoenberg, atonal music, everything". Parks also was a street urchin in La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera and sang the title role of Amahl and the Night Visitors at New York City Opera. During his childhood, Parks became extremely fond of old-style American music, most notably the sounds of Tin Pan Alley. This interest in Depression-era songwriting would correlate heavily with his artistic goals and interests during the 1960s and beyond. He was also deeply affected by musicians Spike Jones and Les Paul, which led
Van Dyke Parks