Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers

DESCRIPTION: Tongue-twister. "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts For Soldiers, Sister Susie's sewing in the kitchen on a 'Singer'...." ""Sister Susie's sewing... Such skill at sewing shirts Our shy young sister Susie shows!" Some soldiers complain. She sews other things
AUTHOR: Words: R. P. Weston / Music: Herman Darewski (source: Wikipedia)
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: clothes wordplay soldier humorous
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT SISUSIE
RECORDINGS:
Al Jolson, "Sister Susie's Sewing Shirts for Soldiers" (Columbia A-1671, 1915?)
SAME TUNE:
Dirty Danny's Digging Deeper Dug-outs (File: AWTBW118)
NOTES [182 words]: For the long list of songs by R. P. Weston, or Weston and Bert Lee, see the notes to "Goodbye-ee." Herman Darewski's other big hit was another wordplay song, "K-K-K-Katy."
I have no evidence that this song went into tradition, but it inspired enough added verses that I decided to list it for the Same Tune references. It was a hit for Al Jolson, whose name is mentioned on the sheet music.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 309, estimates that this was the twenty-fifth most popular song in America in 1915, peaking at #9 in February 1915 (#1 for the year being "A Little Bit of Heaven").
John Mullen, The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain during the First World War, French edition 2012; English edition, Ashgate, 2015, p. 90, implies that this song was the first of a fad for tongue-twisting songs; he lists eleven others that were popular from 1915-1917. Typical examples are "Which Switch is the Switch, Miss, for Ipswich?" and "Are Your Sighs the Same Size as My Sighs." - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: RcSSSSfS

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