Sparking Sunday Night

DESCRIPTION: As "Down behind the hilltops goes the setting sun," young lovers gather to court and go "sparking Sunday Night." The young people wait impatiently for her parents to drop off so they can spark seriously. Conclusion: sparking is fine -- but best on Sunday
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1855 (LOCSheet sm1855 58168, sm1855 581290); listed as from 1855 by Jon W. Finson, _The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song_, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 46
KEYWORDS: courting love family
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE,Ro,SE,So)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Thompson-APioneerSongster 40, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 424-426, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text)
Randolph 379, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text); 468, "Sparking on Sunday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 721, "Sparking on a Sunday Night" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Huntington-FolksongsFromMarthasVineyard, "The Parlor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cheney-MormonSongs, pp. 156-158, "Soarking Sunday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepSomeMoreMyLady, pp. 95-96, "Sparking on a Sunday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #4/72, p. 41 and #4/64, p. 42, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Henry Randall Waite, _Carmina Collegensia: A Complete Collection of the Songs of the American Colleges_ first edition 1868, expanded edition, Oliver Ditson, 1876, p. 17, "Sparking Sunday Night" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2820
BROADSIDES:
LOCSheet, sm1855 581680, "Sparking Sunday Night," T. Birch (New York), 1855 (1 text, 1 tune); sm1855 581290, "Sparking Sunday Night,"Oliver Ditson (Boston), 1855 (1 text, 1 tune)
LOCSinging, as113030, "Sparking Sunday Night," Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as113040, "Sparking Sunday Night"
NOTES [106 words]: Randolph treats his two pieces as separate, and does not even cross-reference them. It's true that the forms are slightly different, and that his #379 includes a sub-plot (waiting for the parents to fall asleep) not found in #468. But the key phrase is the same, and so is the feeling; I think they are one piece. - RBW
LOCSinging as113030 has the tune as "Wait for the Wagon"; neither piece of sheet music sounds like "Wait for the Wagon."
Broadside LOCSinging as113030: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 6.6
File: R379

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