The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
Encyclopedia
"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" is a popular ballad with lyrics
by Gene Lockhart
and music
(Toronto
1918) by the concert pianist Ernest Seitz
, who had conceived the refrain when he was 12. Embarrassed about writing popular music, Seitz used the pseudonym
"Raymond Roberts" when the song was first published by Chappell
in 1919.
, it was recorded by both singers and instrumentalists, including Morton Downey
, Fritz Kreisler
, Ted Lewis
, and John Steel
. Later, as a popular vehicle for improvisation, it was recorded by many jazz musicians, among them Benny Goodman
, Duke Ellington
, Django Reinhardt
, Mel Powell
, Jess Stacy
, and Jack Teagarden
. A version made for Capitol
in 1951 by guitarists Les Paul
and Mary Ford
was a million-seller. The Beatles recorded a home version on a Grundig tape recorder, sometime in the late 1950's. The Beatles version featured guitars by Harrison and Lennon and vocals from Paul McCartney. Canadian jazz musicians to record the song include Bert Niosi
(1946), Peter Appleyard
(1957), Ed Bickert
(1979), and Oscar Peterson
(1980). A version by doo-wop
group the Larks
is featured in the 1955 film Rhythm and Blues Revue
.
Les Paul's version was one of the first electric guitar recordings to feature distortion
.
Carl Perkins [Live on the "Carl Perkins and Friends" release]
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
by Gene Lockhart
Gene Lockhart
Eugene "Gene" Lockhart was a Canadian character actor, singer, and playwright. He also wrote the lyrics to a number of popular songs.-Early life:...
and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
(Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
1918) by the concert pianist Ernest Seitz
Ernest Seitz
Ernest Joseph Seitz was a Canadian composer, songwriter, pianist, and music educator. He published some of his work under the pseudonym "Raymond Roberts" because he did not wish to be associated with popular music. His most famous work is The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise, which he co-wrote...
, who had conceived the refrain when he was 12. Embarrassed about writing popular music, Seitz used the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Raymond Roberts" when the song was first published by Chappell
Warner/Chappell Music
Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company, and a division of the Warner Music Group. The company traces its origins back to 1811 and the founding of Chappell & Company, a music publishing company and instrument shop on London’s Bond Street that, in 1929, began a rapid...
in 1919.
Legacy
More than 100 versions have been recorded. Initially, when the song's hopeful sentiment appealed to post-war North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, it was recorded by both singers and instrumentalists, including Morton Downey
Morton Downey
Morton Downey was a singer popular in the United States, enjoying his greatest success in the 1930s and 1940s. Downey was nicknamed "The Irish Nightingale".-Early years:...
, Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
, Ted Lewis
Ted Lewis (musician)
Theodore Leopold Friedman, better known as Ted Lewis , was an American entertainer, bandleader, singer, and musician. He led a band presenting a combination of jazz, hokey comedy, and schmaltzy sentimentality that was a hit with the American public. He was known by the moniker "Mr...
, and John Steel
John Steel (singer)
John W. Steel was an American tenor. He was featured in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919 and 1920 and Irving Berlin's Music Box Revues of 1922 and 1923.-Early life:...
. Later, as a popular vehicle for improvisation, it was recorded by many jazz musicians, among them Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...
, Mel Powell
Mel Powell
Mel Powell was a jazz pianist and composer of classical music.Mel Epstein was born to Russian Jewish parents, Milton Epstein and Mildred Mark Epstein, and began playing piano as a child. He performed jazz professionally in New York City as a teenager...
, Jess Stacy
Jess Stacy
Jess Stacy was an American jazz pianist who gained prominence during the Swing era.-Early life:Stacy was born Jesse Alexandria Stacy in Bird's Point, Missouri, a small town across the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois. In 1918 Stacy moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri...
, and Jack Teagarden
Jack Teagarden
Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T" and "The Swingin' Gate", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist, regarded as the "Father of Jazz Trombone".-Early life:...
. A version made for Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
in 1951 by guitarists Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
and Mary Ford
Mary Ford
Mary Ford , born Iris Colleen Summers, was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits...
was a million-seller. The Beatles recorded a home version on a Grundig tape recorder, sometime in the late 1950's. The Beatles version featured guitars by Harrison and Lennon and vocals from Paul McCartney. Canadian jazz musicians to record the song include Bert Niosi
Bert Niosi
Bert Niosi was a Canadian bandleader, known as "Canada's King of Swing".-Biography:...
(1946), Peter Appleyard
Peter Appleyard
Peter Appleyard, is a Canadian jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and composer of English birth. He has spent most of his life living and performing in the city of Toronto where for many years he was a highly popular performer in the city's nightclubs and hotels...
(1957), Ed Bickert
Ed Bickert
Edward Isaac "Ed" Bickert, CM is a Canadian jazz guitarist.-Early life:Second youngest of his family, Bickert was born in Hochfeld, Manitoba; his family moved shortly after he was born to Vernon, British Columbia...
(1979), and Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
(1980). A version by doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
group the Larks
The Larks
The Larks were an African American vocal group, active in the early 1950s. They were not the same group as the Los Angeles-based Larks featuring Don Julian.-Original members:...
is featured in the 1955 film Rhythm and Blues Revue
Rhythm and Blues Revue
Rhythm and Blues Revue is a 1955 American concert film directed by Joseph Kohn and Leonard Reed. It's available for free download at http://www.archive.org/details/rhythm_blues_review and is in Public Domain.- Cast :*Lionel Hampton*Faye Adams...
.
Les Paul's version was one of the first electric guitar recordings to feature distortion
Distortion
A distortion is the alteration of the original shape of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation. Distortion is usually unwanted, and often many methods are employed to minimize it in practice...
.
Recorded Versions
- Merle TravisMerle TravisMerle Robert Travis was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and musician born in Rosewood, Kentucky. His lyrics often discussed the life and exploitation of coal miners. Among his many well-known songs are "Sixteen Tons", "Re-Enlistment Blues" and "Dark as a Dungeon"...
- Reno & Smiley (with Don RenoDon RenoDon Wesley Reno was an American bluegrass and country musician best known as a banjo player in partnership with Red Smiley, and later with guitarist Bill Harrell.-Biography:...
playing 5-string banjo) - Walt Hensley
- Morton Downey
- Fritz Kreisler
- Ted Lewis
- John Steel
- Richard TauberRichard TauberRichard Tauber was an Austrian tenor acclaimed as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. Some critics commented that "his heart felt every word he sang".-Early life:...
- Benny GoodmanBenny GoodmanBenjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
- Duke EllingtonDuke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
- Jimmy WakelyJimmy WakelyJames Clarence Wakeley , better known as Jimmy Wakely, was an American country-Western singer and actor, one of the last crooning cowpokes following World War II...
- Django Reinhardt
- Mel Powell
- Jess Stacy
- Jack Teagarden
- Les Paul, with Mary Ford on vocals
- Stan FrebergStan FrebergStanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...
(parody of Les PaulLes PaulLester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
/Mary FordMary FordMary Ford , born Iris Colleen Summers, was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits...
version) - Bert Niosi
- Peter Appleyard
- Ed Bickert
- Oscar PetersonOscar PetersonOscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
- Isham Jones
- The Larks
- Chet AtkinsChet AtkinsChester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...
- The Beatles
- Doc Cheatham
- Evan Palazzo
- The Firehouse Five
- Neko Case
- Chris Barber
- Vic Damone
- Firehouse Five Plus TwoFirehouse Five Plus TwoThe Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland jazz band, popular in the 1950s, consisting of members of the Walt Disney Studios animation department;-Members:Danny Alguire — cornetHarper Goff — banjo...
- Les Shelleys
Carl Perkins [Live on the "Carl Perkins and Friends" release]
External Links
- Sheet music for "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise", Chappell-Harms, 1919.