New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-31
RI has gained access to Tinpan Allev

@us'AS anu irriVatlng intruder. Tinpan
Alley has suffered only those artists who
snow not art. 1t has shared the Citv Hall
contempt Tor art artists preferring the artists
who slng' dance or play the harmonica twice
daily IN the aesthetic realms of vaudeville But
in the last year Tinpan Alley has encountered
the prevalent slump. Although the gross
sales of sheet music probably have not de-
creased alarmingly, there have been few
miiiion-copy sellers. Some observers CHARGE
the decline to overproducton and lack of
persistent plugging" And SO art has rushed
in where pluggers fear to tread.
Its not hard to place a song nowadays
remarked young lyric writer. "Once the
publishers get to know YOU they'll take most
OF your stun. But it's hard game, because
you can't get good plug for your numbers.
fuohsners want to get out dozen hits wear
instead OF one or two all-year-round knock
outs, and they don't fight for number to
get across the way they used to- The ex
ploltation is scattered, and the sheet sales on
individual songs fall off,
inns explanation seems to be popular
among the ballad mongers, although no pub
Usher will admit its validity-not in his own
case, anyhow. However, all of them agree
that something must be done to tempt Won
and me to buy more music for our nianos and
one solution of the problem seems to he the
art cover Following a series of covers
descended, as it were, from Maxheld Parrish
has come the first cubist cover. The nnb-
Usher who has dressed song in picture If
collection Of player-piano rolls descendino
staircase is the enterprisng Irving Berlin
The use of song covers as sales appeals is
question on which Tinpan Alley is. however
far from unanimous. One publisher has
been unusually successful with a series of
ballads issued in plain black and white covers
and he contends that the public doesn't care
how the goods are wrapped so long az thew
are the goods
People buy songs because they want them"
insisted this publisher. "You could print vour
cover on an old newspaper, and if the song
within were one that everybody wanted #
would sell we'll as a piece incased with
genuine oil painting. I'll admit that the uni
formity which characterizes our covers has
given them sales value. The buyers know
that they will find certain type of song inside
our covers, and they have no difficulty in
spotting our design. But l believe that the
song itself is the only thing that counts. The
name of the publisher doesn't mean a thing.
With the exception of one OF two names like
Ernest r. Ball and Irving Berlin the name of
the writer on cover doesn't carry force If
Signor Plopsky comes in with good number
it'll sell and nobody will care whether Sienor
Plopslsy or Jack Dempsey wrote it. Don't let
anybody tell you that a cover can carry
song. It can't. There's one publisher who has
sunk fortune in beautifully Autographed COW
ers, and he's very unlikely to last the wear
out
Experts, however, will disagree.
i won't forget my first experience as a pro-
fesslcrQl song writer remarked a composer
of several current hits 81 had placed NV first
number with a publisher, and I was all thrills.
used to hang around the publishing house to
hear what they were saying about my tune.
One day the professional manager introduced
nae to one of the head salesmen mentioning
That was the writer of a new hit. The sales
man shook my hand enthusiastically. Glad to
know you' he said. The songs big thing.
It's got one swell covert"
history also has commentary to make on
the uses of the song cover. Look through any
musty collection of mothers old favorites and
you VIII discover that half of them have the
writer's name IN huge type, with the notation
that he was the composer of three or four other
1ayor1tes When Italian opera aras were
brought out by American publishers in Eng
l1sh versions in the '40s and SOS the cover al
most invariably bore likeness of Jenny Lind
or Mario or some other reigning songbird The
pop number as such, had not yet developed.
To-day dltties which are not derived from a
musical comedy score are published, for the
most part, with nothing more than the title
and the names of the writers on the cover. 1t
might be more accurate to say "the names Of
writer's but that is another story, which
will be told presently. The early cover was
glorifed biurb. Even the first songs of
Stephen Collins Foster were printed with such
subtrtfes las "the ballad beautiful" Scroll
work. with occasional bits of two-color print
lag, were the principal forms of ornamentation.
A little later the "story cover" came into being.
Most OF the ballads Of the sos and '6Os told
stores, usually about the sweetheart In the
grave. The commonest device on the covers
was two-part line cat, showing on the right
tne lovers sitting on stile and on the left the
gentleman dropping soulful tear on little
grave in the wildwood,