Since someone wanted to know earlier our favorite 1950's songs, I was curious what people's thoughts are on their favorite songs from before the 1950's (written before the 1950's and usually released by record companies before the 1950's -- but if someone has a favorite that was written and even performed before the invention of recorded sounds -- aka before the 1900's that's fine as well). 

I'll get this started;  I have two favorites from the 1930's:

"This Land Is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie   

&

from "Wizard Of Oz":  "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" by Judy Garland

So what are your favorite pre-1950's songs?

A family favourite is The Laughing Policeman which I think is pre-50's.  My dad certainly had it on a 78 rpm.

Paul Robeson's 'Ol' Man River' (1929) is still a very stirring performance...

fanfare for the common man.....aaron copeland

maple leaf rag.... scott joplin

Hmmm, if we're counting anything before 1950, that's quite a bit..

I like Irving Berlin's "Face the Music and Dance" Or is that Cole Porter, lol

Glenn Miller is a great choice, stuff by Harold Arlen (the writer of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), Aaron Copland is a fantastic choice by Loki!

I also like loads of classical music... anything from Beethoven (beef oven) to Wagner to Copland to Lizst to all kinds of it...

Hmmm, if we're counting anything before 1950, that's quite a bit..

I like Irving Berlin's "Face the Music and Dance" Or is that Cole Porter, lol

Glenn Miller is a great choice, stuff by Harold Arlen (the writer of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"), Aaron Copland is a fantastic choice by Loki!

I also like loads of classical music... anything from Beethoven (beef oven) to Wagner to Copland to Lizst to all kinds of it...


So is beef oven, anything like what they say about Bach, being a "batch" or worse yet, the Beatles are really, "the Bee-atles"?  ;D

ultraviolet52 you like classical music?
how about:
pictures at an exhibition....mussorgsky
love of three oranges....prokofiev
toccatta.....ginestara
the planets....holst

ultraviolet52 you like classical music?
how about:
pictures at an exhibition....mussorgsky
love of three oranges....prokofiev
toccatta.....ginestara
the planets....holst


I like Classical Music as well, but I just don't know all of the composers or the works. 

One that I know I do like is, for sure is:  "Bolero"

And of course anything by Mozart is always great to listen to.   

So is beef oven, anything like what they say about Bach, being a "batch" or worse yet, the Beatles are really, "the Bee-atles"?  ;D


lol, and mozart actually should be pronounced as "Mot-zart" I learned that in my music class this past semester from a German student (yet, Mozart was Austrian, lol)

ultraviolet52 you like classical music?
how about:
pictures at an exhibition....mussorgsky
love of three oranges....prokofiev
toccatta.....ginestara
the planets....holst


I love ALL Of those, Loki - Hey, I think we found some common ground  ;D

I like Classical Music as well, but I just don't know all of the composers or the works. 

One that I know I do like is, for sure is:  "Bolero"

And of course anything by Mozart is always great to listen to.   


bolero....ravel,right?

I love ALL Of those, Loki - Hey, I think we found some common ground  ;D


notice the theme,they were all covered or sampled
by emerson lake & palmer.

I like Classical Music as well, but I just don't know all of the composers or the works. 

One that I know I do like is, for sure is:  "Bolero"

And of course anything by Mozart is always great to listen to.     


Bolero is good for about 2 minutes and then you want to ring your own neck after awhile, lol It makes sense because Ravel had been diagnosed with Alzheimers, historians have said his memory was so short term that he worked on Bolero over and over again, without much tempo or thematic changes throughout.. It was more like a ticking bomb.. but, it still is fun to listen to.

Yeah, Mozart is still amazing me. I use to not listen to him a lot because I like the more "movie" like classical music, where there are lots of highs and lows, and it sounds gothic and gloomy. Mozart's music was so happy and excitable, that I wasn't always in the right frame of mind for it. But, after taking a music theory course, I realised the fantastic side of Mozart and his plights.

notice the theme,they were all covered or sampled
by emerson lake & palmer.




Whoa, that blows me away.. I had no idea!

I've got a few before 1950 that I like

Adagio for Strings -- Samuel Barber
Tristan und Isolde -- Richard Wagner
Rhapsody in Blue -- George Gershwin
Someone to Watch Over Me -- George Gershwin
Blue Moon -- Hart & Rodgers
Smile -- Charlie Chaplin & others (used in Modern Times movie)
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child -- as sung by Odetta
Clair de Lune -- Claude Debussy
Arabesque -- Claude Debussy
Belle Nuit, O Nuit D'amour -- Jacques Offenbach (used in Life Is Beautiful movie)
Lakme from Flower Duet -- Leo Delibes (used in British Airways commercial I believe)
Gregorian Chants
Ode to Joy --  Beethoven

(that's all I've gots for now)
:)

the classic:
drum battle....buddy rich and gene krupa

sound track from the movie"swing kids"

I've got a few before 1950 that I like

Adagio for Strings -- Samuel Barber
Tristan und Isolde -- Richard Wagner
Rhapsody in Blue -- George Gershwin
Someone to Watch Over Me -- George Gershwin
Blue Moon -- Hart & Rodgers
Smile -- Charlie Chaplin & others (used in Modern Times movie)
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child -- as sung by Odetta
Clair de Lune -- Claude Debussy
Arabesque -- Claude Debussy
Belle Nuit, O Nuit D'amour -- Jacques Offenbach (used in Life Is Beautiful movie)
Lakme from Flower Duet -- Leo Delibes (used in British Airways commercial I believe)
Gregorian Chants
Ode to Joy --  Beethoven

(that's all I've gots for now)
:)



those are all fantastic! Let me think of a couple more myself..
Also, yes, the Lakme from Leo Delibes Ballet was used in the British Airways commercial for sometimes, as was Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in our United Way commercials.

Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Wasps, The Lark Ascending, Fantasia on "Greensleeves," Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.
Hector Berlioz - Romeo and Juliet Love scene Adagio
Mussorgosky - Pictures at an Exhibition
Alexander Borodin - In the Steppe of Central Asia

firebird suite....stravinsky
messiah.....handel
flight of the bumblebee....korsakov
sythian suite featuring enemy god
dances with black spirits.......prokofiev

Beethoven