In the Good Old Summer Time - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

"In the Good Old Summer Time" is an American Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley

Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...

song first published in 1902 with music by George Evans and lyrics by Ren Shields

Ren Shields

Ren Shields was an American folk musician born in 1868 in Chicago, Illinois. He died on 25 October 1913 in Massapequa, New York. He co-wrote the song "In the Good Old Summer Time"....

.

Shields and Evans were at first unsuccessfully trying to sell the song to one of New York's big sheet music publishers. The publishers thought the topic of the song doomed it to be forgotten at the end of the summer

Summer

Summer is the warmest of the four temperate seasons, between spring and autumn. At the summer solstice, the days are longest and the nights are shortest, with day-length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice...

season. Blanche Ring

Blanche Ring

Blanche Ring , was an American singer and actress in Broadway theatre productions, musicals, and Hollywood motion pictures....

, who had helped Evans arrange the number's piano score, was enthusiastic about it and at her urging it was added to the 1902 musical comedy show "The Defender" she was appearing in. The song was a hit from the opening night, with the audience often joining in singing the chorus.

"In the Good Old Summer Time" was one of the big hits of the era, selling popular sheet music and being recorded by various artists of the day, including John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....

's band in 1903. It has remained a standard often revived in the decades since.

The song appeared in many films, including the Judy Garland

Judy Garland

Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...

film named after it; In the Good Old Summertime

In the Good Old Summertime

In the Good Old Summertime is a 1949 musical film directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It starred Judy Garland, Van Johnson and S.Z. Sakall.The film is a musical adaptation of the 1940 film, The Shop Around the Corner, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, and starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and...

. The book Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry
Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 and published by Harcourt in March 1927.-Background:Lewis did research for the novel by observing the work of various preachers in Kansas City in his so-called "Sunday School" meetings on Wednesdays. He first worked with William L...

opens with the title character drunkenly singing the song in the saloon.

The song appeared in an episode of the hit PBS show Arthur

Arthur

Arthur is a common masculine given name. Its etymology is disputed, but its popularity derives from its being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur....

, and featured at the start of the 1930 Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

short Below Zero.

The chorus is used with a slight twist in Baylor University

Baylor University

Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...

's song, "That Good Old Baylor Line."

Lyrics

There's a time in each year

That we always hold dear,

Good old summer time;

With the birds and the trees'es

And sweet scented breezes,

Good old summer time,

When you day's work is over

Then you are in clover,

And life is one beautiful rhyme,

No trouble annoying,

Each one is enjoying,

The good old summer time.

In the good old summer time,

Strolling thru' a shady lane

With your baby mine.

You hold her hand and she holds yours,

And that's a very good sign

That she's your tootsie wootsie

In the good, old summer time.

To swim in the pool,

You's play "hooky" from school

Good old summer time;

You play "ring-a rosie"

With Jim, Kate and Josie,

Good old summer time,

Those days full of pleasure

We now fondly treasure,

When we never thought it a crime

To stealing cherries,

With faces brown as berries,

Good old summer time.