1918
The war ends in November, and the influenza pandemic kills more people than the war did. The chart is split three ways: war songs peaking and about to fade, jazz deepening, and Al Jolson consolidating himself as the biggest entertainer in America (four entries in the top 19, headlined by “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody”). The Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s “Tiger Rag” is more technically ambitious than their 1917 debut — jazz is no longer a novelty, it’s a genre, and this is the recording that proves it. “After You’ve Gone” enters the canon via Henry Burr & Albert Campbell; it’ll be covered by everyone from Bessie Smith to Ella Fitzgerald. Irving Berlin, actually serving in the army, writes the comedy hit “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning.” The war songs go from martial confidence (“Over There”) to domestic grief (“Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight”) in a single year, then they fall off the chart entirely.
Henry Burr — “Just a Baby’s Prayer at Twilight” (#1) — Archive.org
Arthur Fields — “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” (#4) — Archive.org
Enrico Caruso — “Over There” (#9) — Archive.org
Al Jolson — “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody” (#2) — Archive.org
Original Dixieland Jazz Band — “Tiger Rag” (#10) — Archive.org
Henry Burr & Albert Campbell — “After You’ve Gone” (#17) — Archive.org
Charles Harrison — “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” (#3) — Archive.org
Joseph C. Smith’s Orchestra — “Smiles” (#13) — Archive.org
Marion Harris — “Everybody’s Crazy ‘Bout the Doggone Blues (But I’m Happy)” (#28) — Archive.org
Al Jolson — “Hello Central, Give Me No Man’s Land” (#8) — Archive.org