Published books of complete vintage songs?

I've a particular fondness for Tin Pan Alley, Ragtime and similar songs from the Edwardian era through to the start of WWII, often considered to include many of the tunes most associated with the ukulele. These are songs you'll have heard covered by all manner of artists, including Cliff Edwards, Tiny Tim and Leon Redbone, the sheet music for which often includes ukulele chords.

Ian Chadwick's excellent digital collection formed a solid backbone for my own, after which I've bought numerous copies of sheet music, both physical and digital, downloaded from archives such as the Levy Collection and picked things up from various ukulele groups. What I'm looking for now are published (or curated) books/collections of music from roughly the above period (I was mortified to find that a search for "vintage music" brought back 1970s tunes…), thinking that a good collection is likely to contain songs I don't know or haven't thought of searching for individually.

One frequent problem is something common to fake books and publications like The Daily Ukulele: severely shortened versions. It's been normal to make changes to the tunes right back from their first publication (listen to a few Cliff Edwards numbers and compare the recordings to the sheet) but fake books and ukulele group collections almost always cut the intro section, admittedly often with good reason, and ideally I'd like to find the songs presented as originally written. Chords would be massively helpful as I don't read music (although I'm looking to change that).

Any suggestions?

Great question, as I have had much the same interest. I did purchase "The Songs of Tin Pan Alley for Ukulele" by Dick Sheridan hoping for just what you are searching for, but was disappointed to find the songs are again shortened. Take "I Want a Girl" for example, as all it contained was the well known chorus. Looking elsewhere I was able to find the rather less well known first verse.

[C] When I was a boy, my Mother [G7] often said to me
Get married boy and see how [C] happy [C#dim7] you will [G7] be
[C] I have looked all over, but no [G] girlie can I find
Who [D7] seems to be just like the little girl I have in [G] mind
C6 C#6 D6 D#6 E6 F6 F#6 G7
I will have to look a-round un-til the right one I have found

....then we get to the part we all know.

[C] I want a girl [F] just like the girl that [C] married [G7] dear old [C] Dad
[F] She was a pearl [C] and the [A7] only girl that [D7] Daddy ever [G7] had
A [C] good old fashioned girl with [E7] heart so true
[Am] One who loves nobody [E7] else but [G7] you
[C] I want a girl [F] just like the girl that [C] married [G7] dear old [C] Dad


Then the second verse.....

[C] By the old mill stream there sit a [G7] couple old and grey
Though years have rolled away, their [C] hearts are [C#dim7] young to [G7] -day
[C] Mother dear looks up at Dad with [G] love light in her eye
He [D7] steals a kiss, a fond embrace, while evening breezes [G] sigh
C6 C#6 D6 D#6 E6 F6 F#6 G7
They're as happy as can be, so that's the kind of love for me

Anyway, I'd too love to find a more complete source of the full songs.

I bought the very same book.

In the day before records music was published through songbooks and there were many publishers. I assume you are looking for book the reflects a "best of" or "greatest hits" and it is likely they many of these types of books focus on choruses and simplified chords. You might be more successful if you look up specific songs, composers, or publishers. Some of these are available for free from library collections, others from sites like Ian Chadwick's collection. Judy Muldawer has an excellent facebook group and also a site with some resources to help with searches like that: http://www.banjojudy.com/tin-pan-alley-songs/

This site, has fairly complete songs, for example the I want a Girl song is:
http://www.banjojudy.com/2014/11/i-want-a-girl-just-like-the-girl-who-married-dear-old-dad/

Good resource for original sheet music to many songs

http://vintageukemusic.com/index.htm

EDW said:

Good resource for original sheet music to many songs

http://vintageukemusic.com/index.htm

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That is Ian Chadwick's site that the OP already referred to.

I don't often stumble across a published book of original songs. My richest sources of old sheet music have been junk shops and charity shops. In particular my local Oxfam shop often have interesting sheet music from any part of the last century. Oxfam used to have a huge selection of sheet music in their online shop too, but I see that has dwindled a bit now. I suspect that Oxfam move their stock to whichever store they think it will sell well in. My richest pickings I found in their Durham store near the Cathedral.

I cynically suspect that publishers rarely print books of original sheet music because they know it will go out of copyright relatively soon, whereas if they publish an 'arrangement' then the copyright goes on for ages. If any music publishers are on here, I will be delighted if you could tell me otherwise.

merlin666 said:

That is Ian Chadwick's site that the OP already referred to.

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Oh yeah, thanks for that

Could try archive.org.........it's a bit cumbersome and yea gotta work your way through a bit but one can find interesting material there......

There is/was a series of books from "International Music Publications" called "70 Years of Popular Music", with each ten years from the '20's to the '80's in a separate book. The layout is the usual three staff lines, melody and piano arrangement, with chord names and words. I only have the '60's edition (40 tunes, ISBN 0 86359.266.X), so not much use to the OP, but maybe worth a look for others in the series.

kypfer said:

There is/was a series of books from "International Music Publications" called "70 Years of Popular Music"

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Those look to be exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to find, thank you. Four volumes in the 1920s series and they're all cheaply available on the secondhand market (ticking all the boxes so far ).

Thank you for all of the replies. As I said, I do trawl through various library sites and similar, but curated compilations sometimes include real gems I would otherwise have missed (and help to avoid some of the genuine stinkers, which are legion). It's certainly not about finding the One True Version of a song and attempting to preserve it in aspic, I'll leave that to the musicologists and archivists, but having the full song to work with gives me more options when deciding on how I want to play it. It also helps if an editor has applied some consistency and clarity to the material too.

Kypher’s suggest got me thinking. If books with just the chords in as written for piano would do the job then to an extent piano music is where you should be looking. You add your own chord boxes if you need, just so long as the original says what the chord is (e.g. E7).

I googled Uke Clubs in Leeds and one site (not sure if it’s reliable) gave me about ten clubs in the West Riding of Yorkshire - so it’s a ‘hot bed’ of Uke playing. I’d be surprised if, once you rang up and talked to club leaders, you didn’t find some very able amateur arrangers who had already found some of the material you’re looking for. Talking to such arrangers might well move you forward.

I note what Bill says about rip-off arrangements but if you trawl through your local charity shops then you might well find old piano music that helps to move you forwards.

Just some thoughts that I hope are helpful in some way, even if they just prompt further ideas and possible avenues of investigation.

Graham Greenbag said:

If books with just the chords in as written for piano would do the job then to an extent piano music is where you should be looking. You add your own chord boxes if you need, just so long as the original says what the chord is (e.g. E7).

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That sort of thing is fine. In some cases I already have, or can easily obtain, particular pieces of sheet music but they lack any indication of chords (I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None O' This Jellyroll from 1919 is a good example: chords for the chorus are easy to find, not so simple for the intro). If fake books included more than the chorus as standard then they'd be ideal.

Check out my friend's website - ukesterbrown.com. He has a vast catalog of early 20th century music. And free download.

BBQuker beat me to it. Ukester Brown collects exactly the songs you are looking for. He has a huge archive of them on his website. Most are the lyrics with chords indicated, not the original sheet music. A lot that will probably be new to you.

http://www.ukesterbrown.com/

Following up on the 70 Years of Popular Music suggestion, I ordered the four volumes of 1920s tunes and one for 1900-1920, all of them at bargain prices from secondhand booksellers.



Two have arrived so far and they're exactly what I was hoping to find: clearly presented collections with chords and the songs in a complete form, as you can see from Tip Toe Through the Tulips with Me which doesn't start at the chorus as most online versions do. These give me a great place to start with a wide range of songs, which I can compare with the versions at the better sites like Ukester Brown's to help me with simplifying, changing key etc. These really do look like excellent collections. Many thanks for the help with this little quest.