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The #1 hits of 1905

remember me to Herald Square

Here are the #1 hits of 1905. Since there was no Billboard or comparable charts, how is that possible? Joel Whitburn’s Pop Memories 1890-1954 gives due credit to Jim Walsh. He is “the world’s leading authority on the pioneer recording age.” His columns in Hobbies magazine ran “a remarkable 40 years.”

The Whitburn book also notes:  We compiled charts for those years by incorporating various surveys and sources, notably the Talking Machine World periodical, offered monthly listings of all popular records released starting in 1905 and frequently provided information on the hottest current hits, although not in charge chart form.”

“In the early decades of the 20th century, a song’s popularity was measured by its sales of sheet music and recordings… nearly every department store in five & dime, in addition to music shops, sold sheet music to the day’s top hits. Annual sheet music sales were approaching 30 million by decade’s end. A driving force behind these sails was the ubiquity of pianos in middle and upper-class American homes.”

The songs

The Preacher and the Bear – Arthur Collins (Edison), 11 weeks at #1, gold record. It is listed as a comedy record. It is… of its time.

Yankee Doodle Boy – Billy Murray (Columbia), eight weeks at #1. You’ll recognize part of this. He was The Biggest Star of the Phonograph Era.

In The Shade of the Old Apple Tree – Irving Gillette (Edison),  seven weeks at #1

In My Merry Oldsmobile – Billy Murray (Victor), seven weeks at #1. These were still the early days of the automobile industry in the United States.  I’ve heard this song!

Give My Regards to Broadway – Billy Murray (Columbia),  five weeks at #1. I had forgotten how old Broadway was until my daughter and I went to the Museum Of Broadway earlier this year.

Where The Morning Glories Twine Around the Door – Byron Harlan (Columbia), 5 weeks at #1

Come Take A Trip In My Air-Ship – Billy Murray (Victor), four weeks at #1. Air-Ship, just two years after the Wright Brothers flew in Kitty Hawk

Dearie–  Corinne Morgan and Hayden Quartet (Victor), two weeks at #1

ARA: newspaper route

“newspapers were wildly profitable”

My first Ask Roger Anything questions come from my dear friend Cecily:

Did you have a newspaper route in your youth?

I had a route delivering the Evening and Sunday Press in Binghamton, NY. I’m not positive of the time frame, but it would have had to have been after July 1965 because I subsequently joined the Capitol Record Club. One of the first things I purchased was Beatles VI, which came out that month.

Moreover, I would have had to have been delivering the paper in December 1966 because my father helped me on Sunday Christmas morning, something he never did before or after.

I didn’t make a whole heck of a lot of money. My route ran from the corner of Oak Street and Clinton at a barbershop to a large apartment complex called the Dwight block on Front Street and McDonald Ave., which surrounded a Front Street store called Henry’s.  So monetarily, I did OK on Clinton, took a bath financially on the Dwight block, but did very well on McDonald Ave,  from which you can see the Chenango River.

(BTW, the newspaper delivers don’t have to try to collect the money anymore; the newspapers do that.)

I should note that I inherited the route from a guy from my church named Walter Jones, who was a couple of years older than me. He was my parents’ godson. His grandparents, the Whitfields, were my godparents. His aunt (his mother’s sister), Mrs. Hamlin, was the organist at my church and tried to teach me how to play piano. 

First Ward

We were all in a very small geographic area. Walter lived on the corner of Everett and Elm, one block from Daniel Dickinson School, which we attended. Trinity AME Zion church was about three blocks from his house and a block from mine.

Not incidentally, I later inherited Walter’s job as a page at the Binghamton Public Library under the guidance of a woman named Beccye Fawcett, who attended my church. I believe that she was the first black librarian in Binghamton.

Walter’s daughter is Amanda Jones, who is a well-regarded composer in the television and film industry.

If so, did you have one of those strapped canvas carriers, especially for Sunday editions?

Yes, I did have one of those, but I seldom used it, and never on Sunday; the thing hurt my shoulder. Instead, as I indicated recently,  I often used a shopping cart.

There are reports that even as newspapers are delivered, and fewer are in the carrier, it seems to get HEAVIER!

How can that occur?

I had not heard that, and I can’t find any verification. Based on the last ones I’ve seen, the merged Binghamton newspaper feels unsubstantial even on Sunday. Moreover, newspapers are generally shrinking in width. 

CHQ

When my wife and I went to Chautauqua in the summer of 2024, journalist Margaret Sullivan noted that at the end of the 20th century:  “At the time, newspapers were wildly profitable because advertisers had few ways to target their potential customers. But competition, first from Craigslist, hurt the bottom. Eventually, Facebook, Google, and others circulated the expensive-to-create news content for free, and this gutted newsrooms.”

Print subscriptions have decreased since 1990, though online subscriptions have been rising. 

Here’s some trivia: “The most massive single issue of a newspaper was the 14 September 1987 edition of the Sunday New York Times, which weighed more than 5.4kg (12lb) and contained 1,612 pages.

Based on ads, finding people to deliver the paper has been harder, even as fewer people buy the physical object. Our delivery people are adults with cars because the geographic range of physical subscribers is much larger than when I was young.

Even though it’s not the advertising Mecca it used to be, potential LLCs must still run ads in New York State. The newspaper is still the place for obituaries, especially on Sundays, even though they are expensive and can often be accessed online. 

Random 2024 post

Lempicka

This is the random 2024 post. I randomly pick the blog post date for each month, and then, within that post, randomly select a sentence. I’m sure I purloined the idea from near twin Gordon.

A serious blogger like Kelly would review his output and highlight his favorite and/or best work from last year. This is a great idea, but it would involve actual labor.

January: “Even though it’s an online bank, there are plenty of ways to access your money by visiting any of the over 40,000+ ATMs in the Allpoint network.” At the end of December, I got a Visa credit card from Varo in the mail. It was sent to our home but addressed to someone we never heard of, and we’ve been here for over two decades. I later suspected that when I lost my wallet in the autumn of 2023, the person who found it (but did not return it) ordered a Varo card to be sent to my address and figured they could remove it from our mailbox. Ha! Our mailbox has a lock. 

February: “Still, I didn’t bother voting for her because 1) she’ll get in without my help, and 2) she has a five-octave voice, which she often uses unnecessarily to the music’s detriment.” Why I didn’t vote for Mariah Carey for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the fan ballot. 

March: “Bob Marley: One Love, Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green.” It was the last film I saw at the Spectrum 8 Theatre before it closed. Fortunately, it reopened a few months later under different management. 

April: “The Average Body Temperature Is Not 98.6 Degrees” Linkage. 

Politics

May: “Jay Bernhardt, the newly installed president at Emerson College, got an earful about the arrest of more than 100 protesters at the Massachusetts campus.” About the pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

June:  “[Lauren] Blackman and [Nicholas] Ward met in a production of a Broadway musical called Lempicka, which had previously played in Williamstown, MA, where it went through several revisions, and La Jolla, CA.” A concert that was part of the Albany Symphony Orchestra’s American Music Festival. 

July: “It [Project 2025] claims that “centralized government ‘subverts’ families by working to ‘replace people’s natural loves and loyalties with unnatural ones,’ utilizing the biblical language of natural versus the unnatural.” I mentioned Project 2025 at least a half dozen times. 

August: “’The authors’ thesis is that the business world has a well-worn playbook that they roll out whenever anything that might cause industry to behave even slightly less destructively is proposed.'” Linkage about Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America.

How am I?

September: “My wife has some dry eye issues, so she’s become an expert at eye drops.” My end-of-summer health report.  

October: “One in three tree species at risk of extinction: report.” A linkage post. 

November: “Merry Christmas Darling – Carpenters (1970) – Only vaguely familiar.” This is the first of my holiday music posts.

December: “The play Titus Andronicus by Shakespeare, which I think I had to read in college freshman English class, was a bloody piece that frankly bored me.” A Sunday Stealing about books. 

So it’s reasonably representative. There’s Sunday Stealing, which I completed over 40 times during the year. Ah, three musical posts, which I did at least once a week. I hit three linkage posts, which I do two dozen times a year. Also, I mentioned politics, movies, and a day in the life. 

The picture of my kid was also randomly selected from the pictures I used in 2024.

Stats
My stats are consistent month over month, except for December, which had twice as many visitors and thrice the number of views. Rebecca Jade and the Dave Koz Christmas Tour 2024 (Dec 12) pumped up the number of views I got. However, Random Christmas stuff (Dec 17) surprised me by boosting the number of visitors.
Posts & pages for 2024; the most popular

The 2024 Year’s End Quiz continued

tax the rich!

Last year, which is to say yesterday, I  started to do the 2024 Year’s End Quiz that Kelly always does. But my answers became Too Damn Long, so I split it up. 

Whose behavior merited celebration?

Oh, there’s a bunch of people trying to fight the good fight; I suppose there are a lot of local heroes. And there’s a person who has taken a great deal of interest in my genealogical process, which I greatly appreciate. 

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

There are SO many.

A wide swath of the American public seems to think that taxing rich people is a bad thing, even though they’re not rich themselves. I remember the discussion over the so-called death tax a few years ago, and people balked at it even though they’re extremely unlikely to be in that situation. The Ultra Millionaire Tax Act of 2024 (H.R. 7749) is far less likely to impact them. They won’t be making $50 million, which might be taxable. Income inequality has been rampant since Ronald Reagan’s time, and it has only worsened.

And then, there are the politicians.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) “authored a resolution that would ban trans women from women’s bathrooms at the U.S. Capitol” after saying how much of an ally she is to LGBTQ people.

Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), possibly the most incompetent Senator, said it’s ‘Not Our Job’ to vet djt’s Cabinet picks (psst: yes, it is)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) blames Democrats for weaponizing the weather.

Most of the Cabinet picks (Hegseth, RFK Jr, Gabbard, and especially Kash Patel)

Orange

Elon Musk and his tech bro buddies (rump jr, Vance)

Where did most of your money go?

The house, specifically a new back porch; the daughter’s education.

What did you get really excited about?

The mystery project

Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

Sharply sadder, though better now than in the summer.

Thinner or fatter?

Definitely fatter. There is a distinct correlation between my emotional state and my food consumption.

Richer or poorer?

Poorer.

Science!

What do you wish you’d done more of?

I’d be in good shape if I could only get that cloning thing going.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Brooding.

How did you spend Christmas?

With my wife, daughter, and MIL.

Did you fall in love in 2024?

Absolutely.

How many one-night stands?

Lessee: (two cubed) minus (the square root of 64).

What was your favorite TV program?

CBS Sunday Morning, CBS Saturday Morning, Abbott Elementary, Elsbeth. 

I’ve discovered that I like watching NFL football in the last year or two that I hadn’t felt for decades. It’s always recorded. Every week, I learn something new. In a game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the hated Dallas Cowboys, the score was tied near the end of the game. Cincinnati punted the ball, but Dallas blocked the kick. All the Cowboys needed to do was to let the ball go. They would have possession, and they were already in field goal territory. Instead, one of the Cowboys touched the ball but could not control it.  The Bengals regained possession and soon scored a touchdown to win the game. I loved it.

There’s a thin line…

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Hate is such a terrible word. If I did, and I’m not saying I do, it’d be Elon, who helped buy an election by spending over a quarter of a billion dollars on djt and his cronies. Then he dances around, threatening to slash Social Security. As a friend likes to say, “Chuck YOU, Farley!” (Sidebar: one minor reason I don’t prefer the term African-American is that recently, someone referred to Elon Musk as an African-American, and it hurt my head.)

What was the best book you read?

Prequel and The Undertow are in the same vein.

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Cage the Elephant, who Anthony Mason interviewed on CBS Mornings.

What did you want and get?

To get to sing, listen to music, go to plays.

What did you want and not get?

Democracy

What were your favorite films of this year?

Conclave, The Wild Robot, Sing Sing, Ghostlight, Thelma, Inside Out 2, Poor Things, and Anatomy of a Fall. But my favorite was American Fiction.

What did you do on your birthday?

It was a Thursday, so I went to choir and took out the trash. Beyond that, I have no idea.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2024?

Comfortable.

Facts not in evidence

What kept you sane?

I think I went a little insane this year.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Bill McKibben

What political issue stirred you the most?

Global warming, abortion rights, book banning, racism, sexism, homophobia. Oh, and the possibility that good chunks of Project 2025, which I only mentioned a half dozen times, will be enacted, threatening democracy.

Who did you miss?

In the throes of my despair, it was my friend Norm, who died in 2016.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2024:

This is part of what Kelly wrote last year. I think it works.

The United States of America desperately needs to re-embrace rational and collective thinking, and ditch its mythologies about rugged individualism and the eternal wisdom of “the Founders”.

If you take selfies, post your six favorite ones:

I don’t take many selfies. The one above, taken at the Museum of Broadway in Manhattan (and I don’t mean Kansas) in January 2024, is the only one I can find. 

The musical portion of the post 

 

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

I was leaning into the third segment of the Monster / Suicide / America medley on the Monster album. The first part is relevant but slightly clunky, but there’s something very basic about the end of Suicide. The third part is anthemic. Lyrics and the track.

‘Cause there’s a monster on the looseIt’s got our heads into the nooseAnd it just sits there watchin’
America, where are you nowDon’t you care about your sons and daughtersDon’t you know we need you nowWe can’t fight alone against the monster
Also

The other song that came to mind was American Idiot by Green Day. This is the 20th anniversary of that album. I’m fairly sure that ADD gave it to me at some point. It’s a great collection, and the title song seems very appropriate. Lyrics. “Starting off the album with a bang, ‘American Idiot’ is a scathing takedown of American culture in the years following 9/11.” The track.

Don’t wanna be an American idiot
One nation controlled by the media
Information age of hysteria
It’s calling out to idiot America

Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alienation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow
For that’s enough to argue

What 2024 Meant To Me

I DO make resolutions

And now, a general exploration of What 2024 Meant To Me:

I often wonder why I do what I do. This summer, I was struck by something that John Green, the vlogger (no relation), had posted: that he questioned whether his actions were worthwhile. I thought that was odd: he was helping fight infant and maternal mortality in Africa, fighting disease, etc., so I couldn’t understand why he would question his impact.

But it triggered an evaluation of how I want to use my time. I retired five years ago and assumed that after a half-decade, I would have reached certain mileposts, goals, or whatever. This has simply not happened.

I decided to sign up to have a therapist. It was online, one of those Zoomy-like things, and it simply didn’t take. It’s not the first time I’ve gotten therapy or the first time it hasn’t worked out the way I’d hoped. However, perhaps by pursuing the process, I reached some conclusions anyway.

Just say no

One of them was not to work on a book project. It was a text that the adult child of a very famous person had written, and it was referred to me.  I realized that working on it was making me frickin’ nuts, but I felt obliged to work on it because I had said I would until I realized it was not worth my sanity. The author never understood this. In fact, about a week later, he texted me and said, “How much money would it take for you to finish it?” The answer to the question was that there was no amount of money in the world that would have had me continue to work on this project. Not only did it not bring me joy, but it brought me despair.

I also quit participating on a board I had a great deal of emotional attachment to. This was very difficult, but for reasons that are way more complicated and boring to recite here, it became a necessity as well. I took some mild solace in that three or four others departed the board after I left. I feel bad that the board is in such disarray, but I can’t make that my issue, he said.

Genealogy

One of my to-do lists has been my genealogy, which has gone virtually nowhere in 2024. My sister Leslie has talked to the family on both sides of the tree, our third cousin on my mother’s side, and my father’s first cousin so that the needle might move in 2025.

Since someone asked, the blog still serves a function for me. It is, among other things, a history of events that I frankly can’t remember when they happened. It’s a public diary, and I suppose I could write a private one, but I would never bother to.

As I’ve said, I failed miserably when I planned to write about my daughter’s early days. The public diary has forced me to think about things in a way I need to process the world.

Starting the quiz

Here’s an annual Year’s End Quiz, which I continue to purloin from Kelly.

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Every year, I keep saying that I don’t make resolutions, but I think that’s probably incorrect. I think I made resolutions about doing genealogy, which, as I’ve noted, I failed to fulfill. I offered resolutions about straightening up some work areas that are largely undone and reading more books, which is only marginally better than the year before.

As for 2025, I am going to make the same resolutions. But I’m also going to work on a project, a specific, measurable project, and I ain’t gonna tell you what it is here until I get to a certain point in the process. It might be July or maybe even late August, but I will mention it. And I will work on it because… oh, if you knew what it was, you would know why, but you don’t, so there it is.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

I don’t believe so

Did anyone close to you die?

Nancy, Al, and Barry. Oh, and Midnight.

What countries did you visit?

None in 2024. I’m toying with going someplace in 2025, and I’ll probably return to the States, won’t I?

Future

What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2024?

Inner peace? Democracy?

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I don’t know; sometimes, I think just showing up is an achievement. I’d say writing on this blog daily, but I did that last year and the year before…

What was your biggest failure?

I could not recognize earlier how much the aforementioned book editing and the committee work were making me – how did I put it? -frickin’ nuts.

What was the best thing you bought?

Nothing substantial comes to mind. Some music. Bellflower. Oh wait, I know what it is. I bought a new iPhone case, a certain green shade. According to Charli XCX, the color is brat, whatever that means.  More importantly, my phone case is much easier to distinguish than a black or gray one, making it simpler to find when I inevitably misplace it in my house.

This is TOO MUCH. I’ll finish it next year, which is to say, tomorrow. 

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