Public domain songs
August 18, 2015 10:28 AM Subscribe
What are the best songs published before 1923?
What are the best popular songs that are in the public domain? (The song itself, regardless of whether the recording is copyrighted.) Amazing Grace, Oh Susannah, House of the Rising Sun, that type of thing...
What are the best popular songs that are in the public domain? (The song itself, regardless of whether the recording is copyrighted.) Amazing Grace, Oh Susannah, House of the Rising Sun, that type of thing...
The Lost Chord, by Sir Arthur Sullivan, was huge when it came out.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Buffalo Gals
Pop Goes the Weasel
I've Been Working on the Railroad
posted by Melismata at 10:35 AM on August 18, 2015
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Buffalo Gals
Pop Goes the Weasel
I've Been Working on the Railroad
posted by Melismata at 10:35 AM on August 18, 2015
Blue Monday, the Gershwin "jazz opera" that preceded Rhapsody in Blue, was published in 1922.
posted by sixpack at 10:36 AM on August 18, 2015
posted by sixpack at 10:36 AM on August 18, 2015
Swanee
Hallelujah, I'm A Bum
Tom Dooley
Friggin in the Riggin
New York Girls
Streets of Laredo
Keep on the Sunny Side
Home on the Range
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Work Song
Sea shanties, gospel songs, and work songs are the richest veins to mine, along with old cowboy songs.
posted by 256 at 11:12 AM on August 18, 2015
Hallelujah, I'm A Bum
Tom Dooley
Friggin in the Riggin
New York Girls
Streets of Laredo
Keep on the Sunny Side
Home on the Range
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
Work Song
Sea shanties, gospel songs, and work songs are the richest veins to mine, along with old cowboy songs.
posted by 256 at 11:12 AM on August 18, 2015
Amazing Grace, Oh Susannah, House of the Rising Sun, that type of thing...
Definitely look into American folk revival artists, a lot of their catalogs will be this type of music. And a lot of those artists were directly inspired by the Anthology of American Folk Music, which was recorded shortly after 1923.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:18 AM on August 18, 2015
Definitely look into American folk revival artists, a lot of their catalogs will be this type of music. And a lot of those artists were directly inspired by the Anthology of American Folk Music, which was recorded shortly after 1923.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:18 AM on August 18, 2015
Some of the more popular Gilbert and Sullivan works are good candates: Poor Wand'ring One, I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General, The Sun Whose Rays, Tit Willow, etc.
posted by amtho at 12:01 PM on August 18, 2015
posted by amtho at 12:01 PM on August 18, 2015
List of pre-1920 jazz standards
1920-1923 jazz standards
posted by fings at 4:06 PM on August 18, 2015
1920-1923 jazz standards
posted by fings at 4:06 PM on August 18, 2015
You can tell a song is good because generations of people thought it was worth learning it from the person they heard it from. A useful yardstick for the best songs could be the ones which have been encountered in the most versions in the widest locations over the longest period of time. By that standard the best song is Barbara Allen (Barbara Ellen/Barbary Ellen etc.).
posted by coleboptera at 10:14 PM on August 18, 2015
posted by coleboptera at 10:14 PM on August 18, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by in278s at 10:35 AM on August 18, 2015 [3 favorites]