I recognized this hitherto unidentified (to us) tune the first time I
played Robbie's MIDI file (Oct.7, when I downloaded it,) but I could
not place where I had heard it, or through what medium. It seemed to
me I had heard it as a vocal, but could not recall the voice or words.
It has run through my head since then. But sometimes ya get lucky,
and just now as I was scrambling through my circa 1915-17 discs to find
matches for Matthew Caulfield's unidentified Wurlitzer 165 tunes, I
stumbled across the vocalization of Robbie's tune. No, it's not a
"punk" rock song! It is "Beatrice Fairfax, Tell Me What To Do!" by
Clark - McCarthy - Monaco. For those of you with access to a record
collection, my record is Victor 17926-A, sung by Ada Jones (Billy
Murray's most popular duet partner,) and released Feb. 28, 1916,
according to the Victor catalog supplement for that date. I will
look and see if I have the sheet music for it, but I doubt it.
Beatrice Fairfax, for those who haven't heard the name, was a popular
columnist who gave advice to the lovelorn and others in the days long
before "Dear Abby" and "Ann Landers."
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