Songs from the Year 1917

This page lists the top songs of 1917 in the source charts. The way that the various charts are combined to reach this final list is described on the in the site generation page.

There are almost no charts from before 1920 so this list is heavily determined by very few entries.

Previous Comments (newest first)

5 Nov 2018

it's a little bit of heaven far across the sea by James Mckee

This song was copyrighted back in 1917. +Published b McKee & Smith, from magnolia Ave., Bridgeton, N. J. I can't find any information on it. +Can you help me????

4 Feb 2015

Music hall artist

Dear Sirs. ++ ++ This is a real long shot; I am one of 6 cousins with no other surviving members of family. ++ +We have a photograph that was in amongst family snaps of a beautiful lady; one of my cousins feels she was to do with music hall !! I do realize that your site is to do with songs from an era On the front of the snap is has photographers +indentation and Southport (not there now). ++ ++ On the back it has beautifully written December 1917 If youthink you may be able to identify our beautiful lady is there any way I can email you the photograph ?????

If you cannot help, could you point me in a direction that you think could.

Yours very sincerely,

Jlulie Jones

We only list songs from charts here, maybe one of our readers can help?

1 Nov 2011

# 17 Pack Up Your Trouble in Your Old Kit Bag

Technically, the first Billboard Chart appeared in 1934. It was a weekly listing of the most played songs on network radio. The information privious to that was compiled by Joel Whitburn for his book Pop Memories 1890-1954, and was presented to simulate what Billoard might have presented had they been compiling data at that time. I suspect that your source compiled their information from his work, and in some cases there were transcription errors from what Whitburn presented.

I don't mean to demean your work as I think yoou are doing a fabulous job. However, none of can know everything and I always welcome new information that increases my knowledge.

The "Bullfrog" group did start from the Joel Whitburn retrospective charts, however suggesting that all the differences are due to "transcription errors" is, we feel, a little unfair. Whitburn made many mistakes that the Bullfrog group have corrected, for example by looking at original record labels. I don't know about this period but for later eras the Bullfrog data is significantly better than that listed by Whitburn.

The listing here is an attempt to consolidate data from many different sources (for this era there are, of course too few). We have had many suggestions of places where the Bullfrog data is wrong, in most cases it has turned out that the corespondant was mistaken. So we have adopted the approach to only "correct" Bullfrog data when the adjustment can be justified by independant externally verified sources.

Unlike the Bullfrog group we here at Tsort are trying to bring together entries from many different countries and decades, so we usually downplay the string on a particular label (some groups and songs were released with radically different names in different countries). So if a group is labeled distinctly on a single release we will try and credit it to the most generic form of their name (Prince, for example uses many different names on different labels).

Under both of the criteria the suggested fix does not meet the level of evidence to justify the change.

Of course the suggestion that the data should be fixed has been listed on the page, so later users will be able to see it. We feel that this provides a way to make the suggestion visible.

Also don't forget that most of the suggestions you've provided have passed our tests and have been applied (and, we will continue to welcome all comments from contributors who are as constructive as you)

1 Nov 2011

# 39 Tramp, Tramp, Tramp

This is a duet with Charles Harrison.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the Bullfrog data credits it to "Columbia Stellar Quartet" and we can't find any sources that support listing Charles Harrison seperately.

It is true that he was a member of the group, but in later decades our convention is to try and consolidate entries (by using fewer artist names) adding an extra entry listing Charles W. Harrison would require more supporting information.

23 Aug 2011

17 Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag

This item should be James F Harrison & Knickerbocker Quartet and it is on the record lable.

The Billboard chart listing has "Knickerbocker Quartet"

7 Jul 2011

looking for you are my sunshine 1920 or 30

The song "You Are My Sunshine" was first recorded in 1939. It was written by Jimmie Davis & Charles Mitchell.

The most famous version was by Jimmie Davis (1940) - Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 (1940), RYM 4 of 1940, Music Imprint 5 of 1940s, RIAA 14, nuTsie 30 of 1940s, Acclaimed 677 (1940)

Other versions in various charts were:

Gene Autry "You Are My Sunshine" (1941) - RYM 8 of 1941, US Billboard 23 - 1941 (1 week)

Bing Crosby "You Are My Sunshine" (1941) - US Billboard 19 - 1941 (1 week)

Ferko String Band "You Are My Sunshine" (1955) - US CashBox 44 - Sep 1955 (2 weeks)

Carl McVoy "You Are My Sunshine" (1958) - Canada 39 - Jul 1958 (5 weeks)

Johnny & The Hurricanes "You Are My Sunshine" (1960) - US Billboard 91 - Dec 1960 (1 week)

Ray Charles "You Are My Sunshine" (1962) - US Billboard 7 - Nov 1962 (12 weeks), Flanders 13 - Jan 1963 (1 month), Canada 22 - Nov 1962 (6 weeks), US CashBox 84 of 1963, US Radio 96 of 1962 (peak 7 4 weeks)

Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels "You Are My Sunshine" (1967) - US Billboard 88 - Oct 1967 (3 weeks)

Kiriman "You Are My Sunshine" (1997) - Austria 13 - Jun 1997 (3 weeks)

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