Origins: Tell Me Why (Parish/Edwards/Spaeth)

Subject: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: lloyd64
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 11:58 AM

What was that old song "Tell me why the stars do shine"?

Subject: Lyr Add: Tell me why
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 12:09 PM

Can't believe I didn't find this here.........

Tell Me Why

Tell me why the stars do shine,
Tell me why the ivy twines.
Tell me why the sky is blue,
and I will tell you why I love you.

Because God made the stars to shine
Because God made the ivy twine
Because God made the sky so blue.
Because God made you, That's why I love you.

---

Circa 1945
Words & Music by Mitchell Parish, Michael Edwards and Sigmund Spaeth.
© by Mills Music, Inc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: lloyd64
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 12:51 PM

Thanks! Thats it.
My band is playing for a 50 year reunion, I feel as this will be a good sing along.

Would you suggest any others.

Lloyd64 but almost 65

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 12:54 PM

Check out this page of Scout Songs. Lots of stuff in there everybody knows.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: masato sakurai
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 01:11 PM

There's a third verse (from HERE):

I really think that dear God above
Created you just for me to love;
He picked you out from all the rest
Because he knew that I'd love you the best.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 02:51 PM

Hey, Lloyd, what about Top hits of 1953?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: GUEST,fox4zero
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 03:00 PM

Sigmund Spaeth and Mitchell Parish are the composers of what I think is a copyrighted song. I know that it was performed in Star Dust, a musical review of Mitchell Parish songs.

Larry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: open mike
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 05:24 PM

hooray sorcha--always have an answer!
here is another camp song site..
http://www.prairiehome.org/activities/19970704_campsongs/index.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: open mike
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 05:39 PM

and another:
camp song book, that is:
http://www.btinternet.com/~campfire.songs/

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: open mike
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 05:41 PM

and here is the index of the songs on the previous page:
http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/flying.pigs/list.html
i mean in the previous message...

Subject: Lyr Add: TELL ME WHY
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 31 Jul 03 - 06:32 AM

Copied from http://www.digitaltimes.com/karaoke/singers/tellmewhy.html:

TELL ME WHY
(Mitchell Parish, Michael Edwards and Sigmund Spaeth)

VERSE: All through the night, all through the day,
I keep on wondering so.
Sweetheart, will you answer me true?
There's something I want to know:

CHORUS: Tell me why the stars do shine;
Tell me why the ivy twines;
Tell me why the skies are blue;
And I will tell you why I love you.

Because God made the stars to shine;
Because God made the ivy twine;
Because God made the skies so blue;
That is the reason why I love you.

Circa 1945
Words & Music by Mitchell Parish, Michael Edwards and Sigmund Spaeth.
© by Mills Music, Inc.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: GUEST,shems
Date: 23 Sep 03 - 06:38 PM

There's a version my brother, the physics professor, liked to reference.

Tell me why the stars do shine;
Tell me why the ivy twines?
Tell me why the sky's so blue?
And I will tell you just why I love you!

Nuclear fusion makes the stars to shine.
Heliotropism makes the ivy twine.
Rayleigh scattering makes the sky appear blue.
Testosterone-induced hormonal response is why I love you!

(last line has to be intoned really fast to fit the meter).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: open mike
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 06:22 PM

i like the new verse- very educational!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tell me why
From: Joybell
Date: 24 Sep 03 - 06:46 PM

My Dear-companion sang "Tell me Why" as a duet with his sister when they were little kids. Now it seems a bit ikky - nostalgia-filled though. He's 65 soon. Thank you for all the additional verses.

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Tell Me Why (Parish/Edwards/Spaeth)
From: GUEST,kbarton
Date: 21 Oct 08 - 10:26 AM

After MUCH searching, I turned up a 1902 version by Roy L. Burtch with the title "Why I Love You." You can find it here: http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl//isl/sheetmusic/printable/isl-abi-2443-01 The lyrics of the refrain are standard, although the melody is slightly different from the version I learned as a child. The claim of 1945 by Parish, Edwards and Spaeth is clearly false, although it definitely took on many characteristics of a folk song and they did modify it. The harmonies I learned are clearly pre-1945 and with strong barbershop elements.

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Tell Me Why (Parish/Edwards/Spaeth)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Apr 10 - 06:39 PM

My sister and I first heard this in NJ while working in the inner-city and I used to sing this song to my kids when they were babies. I now sing it to the little girl I keep. Thanks for posting the history behind it. I've always wondered where it came from!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Tell Me Why (Parish/Edwards/Spaeth)
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 13 - 01:38 PM

On a high school Allied Youth trip to Buck Hill Falls Pennsylvania in 1954 the crowd from Canada and USA sang Tell me Why along with another song that blended, but I can't remember the song that went along with Tell me Why.

Any thoughts?

Subject: Lyr Add: WHY I LOVE YOU (Mower/Burtch)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Aug 13 - 09:58 PM

Congratulations to kbarton for finding this! From the sheet music at Indiana University:


Written expressly for and sung with great success by
Miss Roberta Keene, with the Great La Fayette Show
WHY I LOVE YOU
Words by Fred Mower, music by Roy L. Burtch.
Indianapolis: Wulschner Music Co., ©1902.

1. There's one who is far away.
Cruel fate keeps us apart,
Whom I love by night and day.
She's the idol of my heart.
In my dreams I see her loving face.
That dear face comes to me like a spell,
Full of beauty and so full of grace,
The one I love so well.

CHORUS: Tell me why the stars to shine.
Tell me why the ivy climbs.
Tell me why the sky's so blue,
Then I will tell why I love you.

2. Soon I'll be with her again.
From her lips I steal a kiss.
No more parting; no more pain.
Oh, what rapture! Oh, what bliss!
Pressing her unto my own true heart,
Whisper to her words of cheer,
That no more from her I'll have to part,
From her I love so dear.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Tell Me Why (Parish/Edwards/Spaeth)
From: GUEST,Rob Harris
Date: 24 Feb 16 - 02:41 PM

Actually much older than that (1913, lyricist Fred Mower - see
IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Tell Me Why (Parish/Edwards/Spaeth)
From: GUEST,Rob Harris
Date: 24 Feb 16 - 02:57 PM

Curious - the 1913 chorus has a tune that is quite different from the 1902 chorus tune. The 1902 tune is more like the one that I have known since I was a kid (1950s), which is probably the 1945 one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Tell Me Why (Parish/Edwards/Spaeth)
From: GUEST,mmarlow
Date: 19 Jan 20 - 04:11 PM

Isaac Asimov attributes the science verse to some nameless MIT student.
In Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor, page 184, he
says he heard it at an MIT Science Fiction Club annual picknik.

Last line slightly different from the one posted above.

Nuclear fusion makes stars to shine,
Tropisms make the ivy twine,
Raleigh scattering make skies so blue,
Testicular hormones are why I love you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: Tell Me Why (Parish/Edwards/Spaeth)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Apr 23 - 12:30 AM

Another version of the version posted twice above:

TELL ME WHY

Tell me why the stars do shine;
Tell me why the ivy twine.
Tell me why the skies are blue,
And I will tell you why I love you.

Nuclear fusion makes the stars to shine;
Tropism makes the ivy twine.
Rayleigh scattering makes skies so blue,
Glandular hormones is why I love you.”

https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2016/09/19/what-are-the-big-questions-that-science-cant-answer-but-religion-can/

I think I prefer: Heliotropism makes the ivy twine.