Glow-Worm (Gluhwurrmchen)

DESCRIPTION: Obnoxious little piece beginning, in English, "Glow little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer." The rest is equally pointless.
AUTHOR: Music: Paul Linke (German words by Bolten-Backers; English words by Lill Cayley Rpbinson, according to Gardner)
EARLIEST DATE: 1902
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad bug
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 246, "Glow-Worm"
SAME TUNE:
Down by the Seashore (I) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 149)
Down by the Seashore (II) (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 149)
Grow Little Boobies (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 149)
We Are the Girls from Concordia College (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 150)
We Are the Smurthwaite Kewpie Dolls (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, p. 150)
Glow Li'l Glow-Worm (DT, GLOWRM2)
I Wish I Was a Fascinating Lady (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 168)
Roam, Joyous Gypsies (cf. Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 168, 333)
NOTES [105 words]: Emphatically not a folk-song, but the number of parodies caused me to list it here.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 280, estimates that this was the second most popular song in America in 1908, peaking at #1 in May 1908 (#1 for the year being Will D. Cobb and Gus Edwards' "Sunbonnet Sue").
Grdner adds that it was feature in a 1907 play "The Girl Behind the Counter," that it returned to the charts in 1910 (peaking at #16 in pril 1910, according to p. 289), and that a version with revised lyrics was a hit in 1952. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: xxGluhw

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