Sweet Adeline

DESCRIPTION: "In the evening when I sit alone a-dreaming, Of days gone by, love, to me so dear, There's a picture that in fancy's of' appearing." "Sweet Adeline, My Adeline, At night, dear heart, For you I pine.... You're the flower of my heart." He hopes to reunite
AUTHOR: Words: Richard Husch Gerard / Music: Harry Armstrong
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (sheet music; Armstrong supposedly wrote the tune in 1896)
KEYWORDS: love separation nonballad
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric 149, "A Medley" (1 text, 1 tune, starting with the chorus of "Sweet Adeline," then "The Old Oaken Bucket," "In the Evening by the Moonlight," "Rufus Rastus Johnson Brown," and "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground")
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 260, "Sweet Adeline" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 308, 473, "Sweet Adeline"/"Sweet Ad-o-line" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 241242, "Sweet Adeline"
DT, SWTADLN
SAME TUNE:
Sweet Ivory Soap/Ivory Soap ("Sweet Ivory soap, you are the dope") (Harbin-Parodology, #85, p. 25; Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p.. 126)
Alphabet Love Song ("O MLE, Sweet MLE, What XTC When UIC") (Harbin-Parodology, #120, p. 27)
O Friend of Mine (Harbin-Parodology, #174, p. 48)
O Lad of Mine (Harbin-Parodology, #182, p. 49); compare O Dad o' Mine (BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 7)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
You're the Flower of My Heart, Sweet Adeline
NOTES [292 words]: The lyrics of this were allegedly written in praise of "a girl who worked at the music counter of a New York department store." Possible, of course, but also a good promotional gimmick. The name was originally "Rosalie," so the inspiration was not verbal. Both Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, p. 335, and Douglas Gilbert, Lost Chords, p. 327, report that, with the song going nowhere, the authors saw a poster advertising a farewell tour by opera singer Adelina Patti, and "Adelina," Englishified as "Adeline," went into the song and a hit was born. According to Spaeth, p. 334, it is "the queen of the echo school of harmonizing." Spaeth gives extensive discussion of how the song came to be popular on pp. 334-336, and adds that the "melodic appeal [of the song] may be traced to the well-tried pattern of the Westminster Chime."
Richard Moody, Ned Harrigan: From Corlear's Hook to Herald Square, Nelson Hall, 1980, p. 237, -has a different take on the composition; supposedly David Braham (for whom see "Babies on Our Block") "had set the tune for Gregory Hyde's 'You're the Idol of My Heart," thirty years before the song became more familiarly known as 'Sweet Adeline.'" Obviously this does not match the common account. On the other hand, David Braham was a genius at creating pop songs; it would not surprise me at all if he, rather than Armstrong, was the ultimate source of the melody.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 267, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1904, although it never reached #1 in any given month (#1 for the year being Edward Maddon and Theodore F. Morse's "Blue Bell").
Last updated in version 6.5
File: RcSweAde

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