Moonlight Bay

DESCRIPTION: Known mostly by the chorus, "We were sailing along On Moonlight Bay, We could hear the voices ringing, They seemed to say, You have stolen her heart, Now don't go ''way! ... on Moonlight Bay" -- but he has left, and remembers the "girl he left behind"
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Madden / Music: Percy Wenrich (source: sheet music)
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (recording, American Quartet); apparently both the recording and the sheet music are from 1912
KEYWORDS: love separation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 190, "Moonlight Bay" (notes only)
Roud #29731
RECORDINGS:
American Quartet, "Moonlight Bay: (Victor 17034-A, 1912; rec. 1911)
Dale Borusky, "Moonlight Bay" (Fragment/chorus only: Piotr-Archive #561, recorded 04/18/2023)
Guy Wolff, "On Moonlight Bay" (Piotr-Archive #429, recorded 01/08/2023)
SAME TUNE:
Guillemont (Gillymong) (File: AWTBW092)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On Moonlight Bay
NOTES [116 words]: In 1951, this became the theme song of the movie "On Moonlight Bay" with Doris Day and Gordon MacRae. The number of recordings is amazing -- even The Beatles covered it -- though few could be considered in any way "folk." Such field recordings as there are seem almost always to drop the verses and report only the chorus.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 297, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1912, peaking at #1 in July of the year (the #1 song that year being "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee"), with the Doris Day recording making it a hit again in 1951. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: DPio561

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