By the Light of the Silvery Moon (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"By The Light of the Silvery Moon"
Music by	Gus Edwards
Lyrics by	Edward Madden
Published	1909
Language	English
Recorded by	Many artists

"By The Light of the Silvery Moon" is a popular song.

The music was written by Gus Edwards, the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1909. It was one of a series of moon related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era.

This popular tune has been used in a great many television shows and motion pictures.

The song was one of a number of early-20th-century songs which were used as titles of musical films made by Doris Day in the late 1940s and early 1950s. See By the Light of the Silvery Moon (film).

Contents 1 Lyrics 2 Verse one 3 Chorus 4 Verse two 5 Variation 6 Satires 7 External multimedia

[edit] Lyrics

The original lyrics of the song, now in the public domain due to expired copyright, are as follows.

[edit] Verse one

Place: Park

Scene: Dark

Silv'ry Moon is shining through the trees,

Cast: Two,

Me, you,

Sound of kisses floating on the breeze;

Act one: begun,

Dialogue "Where would ya like to spoon?"

My cue: with you,

Underneath the silv'ry moon.

[edit] Chorus

By the light, of the silvery moon,

I want to spoon,

To my honey I'll croon love's tune.

Honey moon, keep a-shinin' in June.

Your silv'ry beams will bring love's dreams,

We'll be cuddlin' soon,

By the silvery moon.

[edit] Verse two

Act two.

Scene: new.

Roses blooming all around the place.

Cast: three

You, me,

Preacher with a solemn looking face.

Choir sings, bell rings,

Preacher: "You are wed forever more"

Act two, all through.

Ev'ry night the same encore.

(Repeat chorus)

[edit] Variation

A variation on the chorus has some patter:

By the light (not the dark but the light)

Of the silvery moon (not the sun but the moon)

I wanna spoon (not croon, but spoon)

To my honey I'll croon love's tune

Honey moon, honey moon, honey moon

Keep a-shinin' in June

Your silv'ry beams will bring love's dreams

We'll be cuddlin' soon

By the silvery moon

The silv'ry moon...

[edit] Satires

Every old song was once new. Billy Murray recorded a song around the time this song was new, portraying an old man who found this new song frivolous. The title of this song is the second line, below:

Oh, I'm sick of all these ditties about "moon" and "spoon" and "June"

So, will you stand up, and sing for your father, an old time tune!

[edit] External multimedia

• By the Light of the Silvery Moon, RealAudio file of 1910 performance by Ada Jones
• By the Light of the Silvery Moon