Down by the Old Mill Stream

DESCRIPTION: "My darling I am dreaming of the days gone by, When you and I were sweethearts beneath the summer sky... Down by the old mill stream where I first met you." Forty years later, the mill is gone, but he still loves her as he did when she was 16
AUTHOR: Tell Taylor (1876-1937) (source: Fuld; Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Spaeth)
KEYWORDS: love river campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Harbin-Parodology, #407, pp. 100-101, "Down by the Old Mill Stream" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 423, 514, "Down by the Old Mill Stream"/"Old Mill Stream" (notes only)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, pp. 200-201, "Down by the Old Mill Stream"
Roud #18684
RECORDINGS:
Judy Cook, "Down by the Old Mill Stream" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #332, recorded 11/02/2022)
Jill MacLaughlin, John MacLaughlin, "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie/You Are My Sunshine/Down by the Old Mill Stream" (Piotr-Archive #315, recorded 10/22/2022; the first two are chorus only)
SAME TUNE:
Down by the Old Garbage Slough (Pankake/Pankake-PrairieHomeCompanionFolkSongBook, pp. 110-111)
NOTES [106 words]: I always thought of this as a barbershop quartet piece, but Sigmund Spaeth, A History of Popular Music in America, Random House, 1948, p. 372, says "modern audiences have been taught to sing [this] with detailed burlesque gestures," some of which he describes. So it evidently became a "motion song" at a very early date.
Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 293, estimates that this was the third most popular song in America in 1911, peaking at #3 in July 1911 (#1 for the year being Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ACSF423D

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