Sidewalks of New York

DESCRIPTION: Known by its chorus: "East side, west side, all around the town, The tots sang Ring-a-Rosie, London Bridge is falling down...." The verses describe courting in New York, and wax nostalgic for the days when the singer was one of those doing the courting
AUTHOR: Words: James W. Blake (1862-1935) / Music: Charles B. Lawlor (1852-1925)
EARLIEST DATE: 1894 (sheet music published by Howley, Haviland & Co)
KEYWORDS: courting game children
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 48, "Sidewalks of New York" (1 text)
Gilbert-LostChords, p. 257, "The Sidewalks of New York" (1 text)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 211-213, "The Sidewalks of New York" (1 text)
OneTuneMore, p.16, "East Side, West Side" (1 text, 1 tune, the chorus only)
Fuld, pp. 499-500, "The Sidewalks of New York"
DT, SIDWLKNY
ADDITIONAL: Robert A. Fremont, editor, _Favorite Songs of the Nineties_, Dover Publications, 1973, pp. 259-262, "The Sidewalks of New York" (1 text, 1 tune, the 1899 sheet music)
William E. Studwell and Bruce R. Schueneman, _State Songs of the Unites States: An Annotated Anthology_, The Haworth Press, 1997, pp. 54-56, "(The Sidewalks of New York)" (1 text, tune on pp. 165-168)
Roud #22680
RECORDINGS:
Abner Burkhardt, "The Sidewalks of New York" (Champion 15279, 1927)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Sidewalks of New York" (Columbia 437-D, 1925; Columbia 15256-D, 1928 [as Al Craver])
George Gaskin, "Sidewalks of New York" (Berliner 0959, 1895)
Andrew Jenkins & Carson Robison, "Sidewalks of New York" (OKeh 45232, 1928)
Billy Jones, "The Sidewalks of New York" (Edison 51340, 1924)
SAME TUNE:
East Side, West Side ("East side, west side, All around the field") (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 105)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
East Side, West Side
NOTES [595 words]: For some inexplicable reason, this was Al Smith's 1928 presidential campaign song. - RBW
Well, Smith *was* the governor of New York. Of course, rubbing that in didn't endear him to the rest of the country, and anti-Catholic bigotry helped do him in. - PJS
Kahn, p. 73, has an explanation: "At the Democratic National Convention of 1920, held in San Francisco, Alfred E. Smith first became linked with the song, 'The Sidewalks of New York.' This association was the result of a bandleader's mistake. [Prohibition] had gone into effect few months earlier, and the convention, which ultimately selected James M. Cox as its candidate for the Presidency, was the scene of some sharp infighting between wet and dry forces.... Representative W. Bourke Cockram of New York... put into nomination the name of a resolute wet, Al Smith.Tthe usual ovation followed, and the band prepared to strike up a tune appropriate to the Smith cause. The bandleader knew two things about Smith: he was governor of New York, and he was a notorious devotee of the songs that had been sung by Harrigan and Hart and written by Harrigan and Braham. Forthwith, the bandleader instructed his men to play what he thought was an eminently fitting Harrigan-Braham song, 'The Sidewalks of New York.' Smith was stuck with it for the rest of his life." (The song, after all, wasn't by Harrigan and Braham.)
Moody, p. 2, says that the song Smith had actually requested in 1920 was a genuine Harrigan and Braham song, "Maggie Murphy's Home" (see the entry on that song), and that the band had been supplied with a variety of Harrigan and Braham tunes, but that "Sidewalks" got into the pile also, and when Bourke Cockran, who announce Smith, said, "We brought him here to you from the sidewalks of New York." Smith's musical fate was sealed. This even though Smith was actually "commodore" of the official Ned Harrigan fan club in 1910! (Kahn, p. 77).
Incidentally, the flip side of the Dalhart recording was "Al Smith for President." I don't know whether that's cause or effect. It's interesting to note that Herbert Hoover (Smith's opponent, who won the 1928 election) doesn't seem to have made any influence on oral tradition, but in addition to the Dalhart recording, Dave Macon sang an Al Smith song.
According to Studwell/Schueneman, p. 55, "In the true melting pot tradition of the city, New York native James W. Blake... collaborated with Irish immigrant Charles B Lawlor [to produce this song]."
Jasen, p. 26, reports that this was popularized in 1894 when it was sung by Lottie Gilson, known as "The Little Magnet" because of the crowds she drew.
Jasen, p. 28, reports, "Supposedly, [Charles] Lawlor, humming the melody, walked into the hat shop where [James] Blake was working, and asked him to write some lyrics about New York. Blake agreed then and there, writing the words down as he waited on customers. When the song was finished, Lawlor took it to Pat Howley, who bought it outright."
Kahn, p. 74, says that that bandmaster who played it for Al Smith wasn't entirely wrong about a Harrigan and Hart connection: "Lawlor and Blake are thought to have been inspired, consciously or subconsciously, by an 1879 tune from The Mulligan Guards' Ball, entitled 'The Babies on Our Block'" [Indexed as "Babies on Our Block"].
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 371, says that this was a hit in 1895, and then again in September 1928, when (he estimates) it was the ninth-most-popular song in America.
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