\"America Needs You Like a Mother\" + 3 more WWI Sheet Music - Al Jolson

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\"America Needs You Like a Mother\" + 3 more WWI Sheet Music - Al Jolson:
$1.99

100 years ago, family and friends would gather around the piano (there was one in every middle-class family\'s parlor) and sing the popular songs of the day, and music publishing was big business. The phonograph had been invented, but the sound quality of records and cylinders left much to be desired. Everything was about to change...This collection is themed around home and family, two are originally British publications, published in USA later (media consolidation was happening even 100 years ago!), and 2 originated in the USA, 1917. They are 10\" wide and 14\" tall, approximately.\"Keep The Home Fires Burning\" was probably the first popular hit song of WWI, originally published in London, 1914, then published for sale in North America in 1916. 8 pages, (including front and back covers), because the 2 verses are printed consecutively. The outer sheets are disconnected at the spine and were not mended. \"The Little Grey Mother\", also originally published in London, 1915, a sad song, not so much a warmongering song, because her son doesn\'t return from battle and the refrain ends with \"will kings give a thought to the heartaches they\'ve brought to that little grey mother alone\". 6 pages (inc. front and back covers). The spine was split and mended a long time ago.\"So Long, Mother\", popularized by Al Jolson (look how young he looks on the cover! This is 12 years before \"The Jazz Singer\"). The arrangement has a clever quotation of \"Over There\". The \"spine\" is also separated on this large sheet, making 2 oversized pages (printed on both sides). \"America Needs You Like a Mother\"is the recruiting song in this collection, 4 pages (printed on a folded single large sheet of paper). Remarkably, the spine hasn\'t split on this one, but the edges have been trimmed, by about 1/2\".
This music is 100 years old and older: all the paper is slightly wrinkled (from years stored in a piano bench) and the edges on all of them have short tears and fraying. \"Home Fires\" and \"So Long Mother\" are stamped with the name of the store where they were sold; the other two have the names or identifying stamps of the former owners of the music.View my other items! I have one other listings of WWI sheet music, more to come as I photograph them. If youpurchasemore than one lot, eachadditional item/lot will ship free (the protective packaging weighs more than the item).