Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-11-14
SOuE OF THE CRAZE SONGS.
TIE Zig Profits in Publishing Popular
Melodies.
From the New York World.

tdfi tiit liiSil I'd Il worm Itpcltei,
cover 800 coo copies OF my 'Peek-a-boo' song
Will have been sold, and my royalty will amount
10 $4,000. get six cents for every copy Of the
song that Is sold That is not the usual royalty.
Some Songs are sold outright for from So to
S.,J and when writer or composer who is not
we'll known wishes to retain interest in his
work afterit is published heis ordinarily allowed
10 per cent of the sales. If it is good song it
may reach IIany 20.GW. but it has to be
very GOOD tO go over 5000.
''icek-a-bou belongs to the class we term
craze songs. Ii Is written in catchy way cal
cGdlei 20 become popular as il deals with chill
dren. home and the tireSi,le: Ii combines the
elements that recommend a work to universal
acceptance. | wrote 'Teek-a-bOo' when | was
living III It'll avenue five years ago and first
u~ei II to- E@lp along comic opera entitled The
West Point Cadet. in which man named john
hctitUn CuIiabOTatcd with me. kenton, see.
now claims To have assisted NE IN WrItInG TINS
song and cl.jsiisS That he should share my roy
atty. but kcHton hal nothing to do with this or
any OF the oj her thirty-OEc musical numbers in
the opera: ht merely helped me Il little with the
dialogue of the piece he cadet was a failure
and the next time used 'I'eek-a-boo' was with
Minnie. Palmer. when ! PLAYED with her in 'Our
Boar,lin- school | sang it for Week but saw
at once II bad uot the proper surroundings and
So determined to lay it by until the right time
Game t. use IL.
That time came when I began starrinr in
introduced Peek boo int the home scene. of
the last act and il immediately became popular
During he sumnIcr months tint SOM alone paid
me Sbp or :: 40 q month. get a larger ROYALTY
than 81 her writers bccauSe SING nv own scn~S
and in that way keep them constantly before the
public There is great deal in that. Dave
Nafnboid. the minstrel. YOU know got Il ROYALTY
from the publishers for merely singing their
songs, and Jonn Carncross. OF Philadelphia. has
In his day received many favors FOR sweetly sing
iu.r IoIt:Ilur ballads -
TODRLY PAID COMPOSERS.
'.Whn are the unfortunates that are poorly
paid: the reporter asked.
Young ard Inexperienced sOng-makers
They are either in want of cash or have not any
capacity for business and so sell their works
outright for ptifuly small considerations l
was that way myself once. IwrOte many things
That brought me comparatively nothing. Nv
first successful song was written the night Ed
Stokes was sentenced to- state prison. 1t was
the jim Fisk sour-'lIe Never Went Back on
the Poor sat up all that night at it. but had
1t finished iii the morning. l gave it to Hell
mich ana accepted a 10 per cent royalty. 1 do
not know how many copies were sold. but 1t
brought HE in about 5000. was IL years old
then. When associated with CrOnin wrote
Terry Joined the Gang, and gave it to Hard
In. who publishes lO-cpnt music. 1t was Il big
hit. but did not ret more than 800 out of it.
Moonlight on Killarney has been success
way, it was in this song the now famous Lillian
Russell md,ie her debut with Tony Pastor three
Years ago.
What have you made altogether by song
writing
In the fifteen years have been at if donot
think 1t has Welded he more than So 00O but
that IL because | got so little tor some of nv
successful works owing to the fact that l did
not know how to manage the sale. When my
new son-s. 'By-by. Baby. By-by.' What's in
Roof get fairly under way. think | can easily
derive all income OF at least - 600 a month from
my publications.
what SORES go best:"
Those relating to the fireside and that have
bright g!!mpSeS OF home revealed in them. Put
Ne in Ny Little Bed went over 300 900: so did
Gran'itathers Clock and Silver Threads
Among the Gold sold as high as $50 600. and
they are stall selling
HAERIGAN's EFFORTS.
''Sone paying songs have been sold very cheap
- the publishers, have they not?''
MANY OF them When Ed Harrgan wrote
the 'Mull..an Guards Pond did not want it. and
wodld not give SO for it. You know what
popular success 1t has been. / think so was all
Harrirar ever got out of it. The .Skidmore
Guards Was written for Billy Carter the banjo
iSt, and went quite cheap. Now liarrlean gets
handsome royalty. He has made money
enough cut of them to be the owner of very
1He theater. y local song of his Will sell $4,000
or 81. 600. and one like Babies On the Block
Will 90 even beyond that
but. sad Mr. Seaman. when Won talk about
s0n--wrterS who have bcelenniort innate in the
business sense OF the word. look at Bobby New
coinu. who has written some of the sweetest
AMI most permanent of all the sO-called craze
Songs. He traded 'Sweet-F orget-me-Not to
Hemch for diamond ring that had no great
value. 'pOrkin'S Night one of the finest songs
ever written AMI that grows IN popularity as its
age Increases. he sold outright for 80 or Tl5
He gave the Bag Sunflower To Billy Emerson
who was singing and dancing for 50 o week at
the time. That song made Emersons fame and
fortune. as everybody knows. His reputation
grew suddenly that his salary jumped from
SO TO 500 and 500 and see by a San Fran
Cisco paper recently that the Madison Square
people. that is the FrOhmans offered him 8 | 600
a week to enter their new white minstrel en-
terprise for 1884. Bobby has written other
popular songs that i cannot now recall. but out
OF the whole lot l don't suppose he has made
SJH. and only because he's no business man and
don't care.
w. IL. Brockway, the interlocutor of Dan
Bryants Nin>trels. sold Jockey Hat and
Feather for 115 and Little Sweetheart went
for 80. Both have sold up into the hundred
thousands.
Joe Skelly. the author of Pretty Red Rose
Is a plumber in New York city, and although he
has written this very popular song and such
successful compositions as Oh Amt You Awful
a
Goat tIiinn BE- got more than 20 or $40 for any
one OF them
Inc conversation then turned on the origin
ana kinsljp of some of the most popular of the
craze songs IL seems that at first the ..Mul-
hgan Guards was a joint piece of work in
which Ed. Harrigan could claim credit only for
the solo part. while member of the orchestra
hat furnished the chorus. Dave Braham after
wards reconstructed it. He heard Jennie
Hughes singing one night and he Immediately
aiaFtcd the music to the ''Mulii%an" song Miss
Hughes was singing song that Horace Lingard
had pOpu.aTiZed:
I'm Captain Jones.
OF the y. g. ). y. y"
OLD ADAPTATIONS.
The reader who Will recall this air and will
hum 1t over cannot fail to recognize the close
relationship between it and Harrigan's '.Mulli-
gan Guards. my Johanna is founded upon
The melody of The Last Rose of Summer" and
'BrignteSt Eyes" is reproduction Of after the
Opera Is over" Few people know where Wait
TIL the Clouds Roll BY" came FROM although il
Is one Of the most universally sung and best
known Of all the craze pieces. An accident,
however. revealed its origin. singer while
rendering 1t on" night dropped one of his notes
after the Introductory bass. and a cranky mu-
sican in the audience at once jumped to his feet
opI r..1n I'x-ac rafi OF l,e&