1919
The war is over and Prohibition is coming — ratified in January, taking effect January 1920. The chart mood shifts from war anxiety to a mix of nostalgia, celebration, and forward looking. “Till We Meet Again,” the biggest-selling song of the entire WWI era, tops the year as a farewell waltz that now reads as a goodbye to the war itself. Nora Bayes delivers the cultural diagnosis in comic form: “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?)” — soldiers who’ve seen the world aren’t going back to rural life, and urbanization is about to accelerate. Marion Harris takes over “After You’ve Gone” from Burr & Campbell’s 1918 reading and makes it rhythmic and bluesy — this is already what pop will sound like in the 1920s. The dance orchestra format is rising (Ben Selvin, Joseph C. Smith’s Orchestra), smoother and more polished than the vocal quartets; the quartet era is ending. Bert Williams has his best chart year with three entries, including a drinking innuendo (“Everybody Wants a Key to My Cellar”) that’ll read very differently in three months.
Henry Burr & Albert Campbell — “Till We Meet Again” (#1) — Archive.org
Henry Burr — “Beautiful Ohio” (#2) — Archive.org
Marion Harris — “After You’ve Gone” (#7) — Archive.org
Al Jolson — “I’ll Say She Does” (#4) — Archive.org
John Steel — “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” (#5) — Archive.org
Bert Williams — “It’s Nobody’s Business but My Own” (#10) — Archive.org
Nora Bayes — “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm” (#14) — Archive.org
Ben Selvin & His Orchestra — “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” (#6) — Archive.org
Marion Harris — “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (#16) — Archive.org
Bert Williams — “Everybody Wants a Key to My Cellar” (#18) — Archive.org