After the Ball is a popular song written in 1891 by Charles K. Harris. The song is a classic waltz in 3/4 time. In the song, an uncle tells his niece why he has never married. He saw his sweetheart kissing another man at a ball, and he refused to listen to her explanation. Many years later, after the woman had died, he discovered that the man was her brother.
"After the Ball" became the most successful song of its era, which at that time was gauged by the sales of sheet music. In 1892, it sold over two million copies of sheet music. Its total sheet music sales exceed five million copies, making it the best seller in Tin Pan Alley's history. It exemplifies the sentimental ballads published before 1920, whose topics were frequently babies, separation, and death.
Video After the Ball (song)
History
The song was originally written for an amateur minstrel show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was not an immediate success, but Harris published it himself and arranged for it to be interpolated into the touring musical production of A Trip to Chinatown, in which it was sung by J. Aldrich Libbey. Its popularity grew when it was performed regularly by John Philip Sousa and his band at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. In England, it was promoted by George Lashwood. Successful recordings in 1893 were by George J. Gaskin and by John Yorke AtLee.
The song was later famously used in the musical Show Boat to exemplify the 1890s style of music. There it was performed by Norma Terris. In the 1936 film version of the musical, it was performed by Irene Dunne, and in the 1951 film version, by Kathryn Grayson. Only the first verse and chorus were sung in Show Boat.
It was also sung by Alice Faye in the 1940 biographical musical film, Lillian Russell. The song is also heard in the 1936 movie, San Francisco. In the HBO series Carnivàle, the second episode of the first season is titled "After the Ball is Over," and a fragment is sung at the end of the episode. In the last scene of an episode of Season 10 of Murdoch Mysteries, Dr. Julia Ogden plays the song on a gramophone as she removes for examination the brain of a serial killer on the autopsy table.
Maps After the Ball (song)
Lyrics
Parody
The popularity of the song made it a natural for contemporary parody. A common version was:
Alternative parody verse 2 of above
Alternative parody verse.
Selected modern recordings and arrangements
- Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album Join Bing and Sing Along (1959)
- Nat King Cole on Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer 1963
- The Kingsway Strings
- Lawrence Welk And His Orchestra 1957
- Julie London - for her album Swing Me an Old Song (1959)
- Orkest Frans Kerkhof 1960
- Frances Black with Arcady (band) Ireland, credited as "trad." 1990
- Bob Crewe arranged Crewe 1967, covered by Danny Rivers South Africa 1967
- Bob Kames 1959
- Draaiorgel "De Pruik" 1960
- Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians 1950
- Anita Harris 1978
- Joan Morris and William Bolcom on their debut album of the same title, 1974
References
- Booth, Mark W. The Experience of Songs. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981; pp. 159-72.
- Goldberg, Isaac. Tin Pan Alley: A Chronicle of American Popular Music. New York: Frederick Ungar, [1930], 1961; pp. 90-98 and passant.
- Harris, Charles K. After the Ball. New York: Frank Maurice, 1926; p. 50 and passant.
Bibliography
- Booth, Mark W. The Experience of Songs. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. ISBN 0300026226
- Goldberg, Isaac. Tin Pan Alley: A Chronicle of American Popular Music. New York: Frederick Ungar, [1930], 1961. OCLC 687309
- Harris, Charles K. After the Ball. New York: Frank Maurice, 1926. OCLC 862504
- Smith, Kathleen E. R. (2003). God Bless America: Tin Pan Alley Goes to War. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813122562.
External links
- "After the Ball" at Tin Pan Alley project
Source of article : Wikipedia
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