What about "All Night Long"? Obviously it's been Tin Pan Alleyed, but its publication history goes back to at least 1891 ("Ain't Dat a Shame, Bill Bailey" by Queen and Wilson, "as sung with great success by Tascot, the White Coon"). Uncle Dave cut this as "Ain't It a Shame to Keep Your Honey Out in the Rain," 1926, with the usual Macon liberties, and John McGhee did a gtr/hca recording for Gennett in 1928 ("Bill Bailey, Ain't That a Shame," credited on Champion as "John Hutchens"). Sheldon Brooks lifted the melody for his 1911 hit, "All Night Long." For a pop recording by Ada Jones and Billy Murray, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE0h65gORhI The melody is undoubtedly of folk origin and has been used repeatedly, at least in hillbilly music. All the 1920s-1940s recordings of "All Night Long" that I'm familiar with are parodies, though Frank Hutchison and Roy Acuff start theirs off with a verse from Sheldon Brooks; Acuff's goes on to not quite Bang Boys territory -- had he gotten there, he could have greeted the Turner Bros in 1947. The tune also carries "Boll Weevil Blues," "Battleship of Maine," A P Carter's "My Clinch Mountain Home," and Oscar Ford's "Married Life Blues," among others. It was always my own blues-ish go-to for improvised topical and smutty songs.
|