Dave Kaplan served as Music Director for Edison Labs during the early 20s, and also served as a leader of this "house band." The tune, which they recorded on May 28 of 1924, had been co-written by Gus Van and Joe Schenk (a very
popular vocal duo flourishing between WWI and the Charlston), Lew Colwell (co-wrote "Alexander's Back from Dixie with his Ragtime Band" and "Stack-O-Lee Blues"), and Frank Bannister (co-author of "You Do" and "Wait'll it's Moonlight").
On this release, as with a few others around this time, Edison tried a novel approach to exhibit the longer playing time on the discs: start with a two-minute instrumental version and then finish with a vocal version of the same tune
on the same side. The key-change, just before the vocal begins, separates the two halves of the program. The instrumental part is very spirited, for Edison anyway, and there's a few good short solos here. Vernon Dalhart serves as
the band singer on the second part, delivering the full lyric with verse and all. This is take "B," issued on both disc and cylinder. The disc from which this sample was taken suffered some damage to the grooves because of a bad
needle once, but just on the loud parts, and thankfully scratch removal filters tamed the worst of it without diminishing the music.
