A Most Atypical Top-Ten List

I mentioned the one-off activities I engage in during the betwixt-and-between days between Christmas and returning to work after New Years. Today I went through a box of sheet music that I've collected over the years.

I present a list of 10 interesting titles from that collection. Titles range from the 1930's-1950's, and were purchased within a year or two of their copyright date by their original, now deceased owner, one Alma Pinske, nee Tabbert (former church organist in Gainesville FL), who I never knew. How I obtained a part of her sheet music collection remains an unimportant secret, even to me.

This isn't the sort of (tiresome) list that is circulating around the Internet at year’s end. It's certainly out in left field, in comparison. Here goes, all the same:

Vintage Sheet Music from the Top of the Clog Almanac Stack

1. Who Threw The Overalls in Mistress Murphee’s Chowder. 1937. Calumet Music Co. Chicago.

2. Ferdinand The Bull. 1938. ABC Music Corporation. NYC. The Disney Cartoon won an award for cartoon-short-subjects at the 11th Academy Awards in 1938. I once owned a copy of the book written in Latin.

3. Tennessee Waltz. 1948. Acuff-Rose Publications. Nashville.

4. Peter Cottontail. 1950. Hill and Range Songs, Inc. Beverly Hills.

5. Thanks For the Memory. 1937. Paramount Music Corp. NYC. Visit Bob Hope's website.

6. Two Sleepy People. 1938. Famous Music Corp. NYC. Appeared in the same movie as #5.

7. Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly. 1946. Irving Berlin Music Co. NYC. From the musical Annie Get Your Gun. Annie is a standard production of quaint and/or lovely outdoor summer stock theaters that have popped up all around the West in past years. I've attended shows at 2 different Idaho venues, and have seen it advertised in Utah too.

8. Side by Side. 1927 and 1953. Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. NYC.

9. Let Me Call You Sweetheart. 1937. Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. NYC. (Earlier copyrights assigned from Paull-Pioneer Music Corp.) Lyrics written by Beth Slater Whitson, who is buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery, Madison, TN, with bygone music luminaries including Roy Acuff, Hank Snow, and John Hartford. Offensive thuglife rendition of the Sweetheart theme here. While you're at it, go memorize the Code of Thug Life.

10. Your Cheatin’ Heart. 1952. Acuff-Rose Publications. Nashville. My father owned Hank Williams records. Williams' music was among the first recorded music I ever listened to. I wish I had the broad mahogany boards my parents' hi-fi was enclosed in!