Lyr Req: When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C

Subject: Lyr Req: 'When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C'
From: GUEST,MW (music)
Date: 09 Sep 13 - 06:52 AM

Hi

Re: "When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C" (comp: Harry Von Tilzer; 1916)

Does anybody have a recording of the song - or just the melody - for a 1916 song "When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C" ?

Or know where I can get an electronic recording of the song/melody?

I have researched online & have at least found the (piano & voice) sheet music. It is available to download online at:
http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/metsnav/inharmony/navigate.do?oid=http://fedora.dlib.indiana.edu/fedora/get/iudl:54681/METADATA.
There is even a lovely illus of the original artwork on the sheet music's front cover!

There are also a few places to hear it online
e.g. at:
www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/4607/
Where the other info given is :
Recording Title:    When Priscilla tries to reach high C
Composer:    Harry Von Tilzer
Conductor:    Rosario Bourdon
Lyricist:    Jack Mahoney
Soprano vocal:    Ada Jones
Tenor vocal:    Billy Murray
Genre(s):    Humorous songs
Category:            Vocal
Description:    Female-male vocal duet, with orchestra
Language:    English
Label Name/Number:    Victor 18100
Matrix Number/Take Number:    B-18012/2
Recording Date:    1916-06-22
Place of Recording:    Camden, New Jersey
Size:    10"
Duration:    02:45

It is available at the URL above as sheet music for piano & solo voice.

It has been recorded both with piano accomp. for vocalist; & as a female-male vocal duet, with orchestra.

A/the female-male vocal duet, with orchestra, was as above (i.e. recorded in 1916, by Ada Jones & Billy Murray).

More info is at: http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/matrix/detail/700003050/B-18012-When_Priscilla_tries_to_reach_high_C.

I'd like to get/buy a rendition of the song! It would HAVE to be a digital recording as we no longer own anything like a "record player" (LOL!), let alone one that plays 78s etc.!! ,-)

I also wouldn't mind a text-only of the lyrics (sadly I HAVEN'T the time at present to transcribe this from the sheet music above!)

I did a Google search re the lyrics but came up with nothing. :-(

The composer is: Von Tilzer, Harry, 1872-1946. The lyricist is: Mahoney, Jack, 1882-1945.

The first line is: "Priscilla Lee next door to me, rehearsing for the stage".

The first line of the Chorus is: "In the morning when you're dreaming".

Can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C'
From: Bugsy
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 04:21 AM

Try this link
When Precilla tries to reach high C

CHeers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C'
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Sep 13 - 05:44 AM

brilliant!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C
From: MW (music)
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 09:06 AM

Thanks, Bugsy!

Yes I had already found it at YouTube; I should have mentioned that in my original posting! ,-)

So I have found it in a LISTENABLE (is that a real word?! LOL!!) format & within a video; but I am looking for the song itself, in a DOWNLOADABLE format.

Any ideas, anyone, as to where I can get/purchase a digital file of the song?

BTW, there are a couple of other recordings at YouTube, including the very funny recording by Norman Long. It also has a very informative intro recounting the origin of the song! :

Norman Long - Why is the Bacon So Tough? / Never Have a Bath
(www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AHbG_e-Okc)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C
From: MW (music)
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 09:27 AM

Sorry, my mistake, that reference - that I made in my last posting - to "Norman Long" and "www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AHbG_eOkc" - was an error: I erroneously! referred to a completely DIFFERENT comedy/musical hall song-video uploaded at YouTube.

BTW, that Norman Long song is a GREAT number that I happened to find today at YouTube: it is called
"Why is the Bacon So Tough?". It was written in 1928. Super lyrics. Well worth a look at!

The Norman Long version isn't a complete rendition (there are better videos of the same song at YouTube, if you want to hear the whole version!), but it is the best for explaining the origins of this wittily, if bizarrely!, titled song.

So back to "Priscilla in high C" . . .
,-)
Still looking for that sound file . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C
From: GUEST,#
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 10:51 AM

https://archive.org/details/AdaJonesBillyMurray-91-100

I know from nowt about downloads. Does this help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: When Priscilla Tries to Reach High C
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 19 Jun 14 - 08:21 PM

Reminds me of a line in the chorus of a Denis Kevans song, Ghost of Sydney Opera House:

And we'll sing Paddy, sing,
A song to rouse 'em all,
You're the Ghost of Sydney Opera House,
Now take a curtain call,
When in Madame Butterfly,
**Joan reaches for High C**
We'll whisper-"Rest your tonsils, love
And leave this one to me."

"Joan" is, of course, Joan Sutherland.

Full lyrics (and several other Kevans songs/poems) available at http://togsplace.blogspot.com.au/2006/10/another-selection-of-denis-kevanss.html

Subject: Lyr Add: WHEN PRISCILLA TRIES TO REACH HIGH C
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Jun 14 - 08:25 AM

From the sheet music at Indiana University (with added footnotes):


WHEN PRISCILLA TRIES TO REACH HIGH C
Words by Jack Mahoney; music by Harry Von Tilzer; ©1916.

1. Priscilla Lee next door to me rehearsing for the stage
Takes singing lessons from Professor Beany.
She yells all day and neighbors say she should be in a cage
But she thinks she's as good as Tetrazzini¹.
She asked a neighbor if her execution was all right,
And he replied, "I favor it tonight."

CHORUS: In the morning when you're dreaming
She will wake you with her screaming.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, up and down the scale she goes.
Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, singing through her nose.
She thinks she's as good as Patti².
She's enough to drive you batty.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble.
Ceilings crack and tables wobble,
And the neighbors tell us
Backyard cats are jealous
When Priscilla tries to reach high C.

2. Her ah-ah-ah's and tra-la-la's scare all the birds away.
They think it is a seagull or a vulture.
But she'll declare her voice so rare is being cultured say!
The neighbors swear it sounds like agriculture.
Her teacher said, "I think your throat is full of music, but
'Twould be much better if you had it cut."

CHORUS: In the morning when you're dreaming
She will wake you with her screaming.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, she eats birdseed all the day.
Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, "choke!" the neighbors say.
When she warbles a cadenza,
You'd think she had influenza.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble.
Ev'rybody starts to wobble.
Once a copper heard her
And thought it was murder,
When Priscilla tries to reach high C.

1. Luisa Tetrazzini
2. Adelina Patti