1917
A hinge year. The US enters WWI in April, and the chart becomes a mobilization document: three different versions of George M. Cohan’s “Over There” chart simultaneously (American Quartet at #1, Nora Bayes at #7, Peerless Quartet at #11), along with “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag,” “Joan of Arc,” and more. More consequentially for the long run, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band records “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” and becomes the first jazz recording to chart — the ODJB is a white band playing Black music, but they bring the sound to a mass audience, and jazz will reshape everything about popular music over the next decade. Jerome Kern contributes another quiet landmark with “Till the Clouds Roll By,” a Broadway ballad whose wartime optimism lands exactly right. Marion Harris debuts as a white singer working in a style shaped by Black vaudeville and early blues — pointing hard toward what the 1920s will sound like. Vaudeville duo Van & Schenck arrive with “For Me and My Gal,” future standard.
American Quartet — “Over There” (#1) — Archive.org
Nora Bayes — “Over There” (#7) — Archive.org
Knickerbocker Quartet — “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag” (#4) — Archive.org
Henry Burr — “Joan of Arc” (#15) — Archive.org
Original Dixieland Jazz Band — “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (#22) — Archive.org
Van & Schenck — “For Me and My Gal” (#8) — Archive.org
Anna Wheaton & James Harrod — “Till the Clouds Roll By” (#3) — Archive.org
Elsie Baker — “Hush-a-Bye Ma Baby (The Missouri Waltz)” (#5) — Archive.org
American Quartet — “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!” (#9) — Archive.org
Marion Harris — “They Go Wild, Simply Wild, Over Me” (#19) — Archive.org