[Dixielandjazz] Composer of Cherry

[Dick Baker]

Very interesting, this.

I never had the original sheet music on hand for this one, and it's not one 
of the many titles that I've looked up in the Library of Congress copyright 
files.  I suspect that Erdos got the Don Redman/Ray Gilbert from the 
Baker-Baldwin Radiogram Wizards when he recorded them in 1993 and that we 
didn't question it at the time.

I've just done some research using my usual tools.  Both Kinkle and 
Lissauer ("Encyclopedia of Popular Music in America") cite just Don 
Redman.  But another source that I've found quite useful is the Center for 
Popular Music at Tennessee State University 
(http://popmusic.mtsu.edu/research.html).  They report:

COMPOSER, LYRICIST, ARRANGER
Redman, Don
Gilbert, Ray lyr

TITLE
Cherry.

FIRST LINE
No one in this world will ever take your place,

IMPRINT
New York, NY : Peer-Southern Organization World-Wide Music Publishers, 1955 
: 1928

DESCRIPTION
3 pp.

NOTES
This piece is included in a bound volume of professional copies of 481 
songs published by Peer-International. This second edition of the "Big Blue 
Book" was compiled and distributed in 1966 or later.

Generally, Tenn. State has index original sheet music, but this comes from 
a later folio.  In my own record collection, the Redman-Gilbert pairing 
comes up twice on "Cherry," both on recordings by Harry James.  And Bill 
Haesler notes that Ray Gilbert was active in the '40s, much later than 
"Cherry."

So here's an educated guess:  Ray Gilbert modified Don Redman's lyrics at 
some later date.




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   Dick Baker - Falls Church, Virginia, USA
             box2 at twotonbaker.com