Recorded on April 5 of 1917, shortly after the song's publication, this is one of the earliest recordings of this evergreen classic by George W. Meyer (co-author of "Mandy" and "There Are Such Things"), Edgar Leslie (long & industrious career
included co-authorship of "He'd Have to Get Out and Get Under" and "Rose of the Rio Grande"), and Ray Goetz (Broadway producer through 20s and 30s, lyricist for "George White's Scandals" for 1923 and '24, brother-in-law of Irving Berlin). There's a full
supporting string orchestra and chorous here, with the top soprano sounding like Racheal Grant - she and Billy recorded many duets at the Edison studios around this time. The performance was issued on both disc and cylinder. This is take "C",
the last of three takes made, and though Billy sounds a bit far from the horn at the beginning it's still a good recording. The disc was treated roughly, probably played many times on a non-Edison machine, but I found the undamaged part of the
groove so the music could come through very nicely with only a bit of noise reduction applied.
