What is your favorite "old tyme" song?

Whatever song the Dinosaurs sang.

@Cruiser You beat me to it! I love love love “Maple Leaf Rag”.

however, if you are talking about ALL the years before I was born…..I think “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Benny Goodman might trump it

Too many to pick one:

Hard Times Come Again No More by Stephen Forster
Amazing Grace
Ol Man River
Blues in the Night
Strange Fruit
Pastures of Plenty by Woody Guthrie

and on and on and on.

I have a lot of them.

Cry Me a River, Diana Krall
How High the Moon, Pat Suzuki (Haunting opening music to the film Biloxi Blues)
I Wish You Love, Natalie Cole
Lullabye of Birdland, Mel Torme
Jerry Goldsmith’s opening theme music to the film Chinatown (1974)
Quiet Nights, Diana Krall
Peel Me a Grape, Diana Krall
Amazing Grace, Joan Biaz
Over the Rainbow, Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole
Besame Mucho, Diana Krall
I’ll be Home for Christmas, Judy Garland
Heartbreak Hotel sung in bluesy half-time by some guy in a piano bar in NYC

So many beautiful songs to choose from.

If I have to pick one I’ll go with Riu Riu Chiu! I love the villancico form.

Paint it Black
These Boots are Made for Walkin
California Dreamin
Wild Thing

Bluesette, Toots Thielemans
The Shadow of Your Smile, Astrud Gilberto
Quiet Nights, Astrud Gilberto
Corcovado, Astrud Gilberto
Desafinado, Astrud Gilberto

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Sarah Vaughn
Man of Constant Sorrow (1913), Soggy Bottom Boys

@anniereborn The whole reason I endured 3 years of piano lessons was so I could learn to play the Maple Leaf Rag on piano and once I did learn it I quit taking lessons. Kinda wish kept taking them but 42 years later, I can still play it today

“I Can’t Get Started With You!” – Bunny Berrigan

I love old big band & swing tunes. here’s a great one.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mJ4dpNal_k

@Coloma I wonder how many times the trumpet player got whacked by Gene the drummer! lol

Springtime in Paris, Count Basie, Blazing Saddles, here

@Cruiser Haha, I’m sure it happened.

@Espiritus_Corvus Great scene, I forgot all about that movie, saw it at about 13 or 14 with a friend and her father took us, he was quite offended so kinda ruined it for us, afraid to laugh becasue uptight dad was very disapproving.

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@Coloma that’s it! that’s it!

Man, you really know you’re lurved when you get points for a deletion.

Duke Ellington- Mood Indigo

Don’t you suppose it means my silence is welcome?

Not at all.

Amazing Grace.
Battle Hymn of the Republic.

I’m taking “tyme” to mean pre-modern era. Pre-Edison.

There is an old Irish song which was sung by those forced to emigrate from their beloved emerald isle to America due to the famines beginning in the 1840’s. It is so beautiful that I would venture to call it a hymn. It’s about dying far away from home, then going home again. I am unembarrassed to say that I can’t sit threw it without completely breaking down.

It became popular among the many Irish brigades—on both sides—in our Civil War. Many of these men were willing to risk their lives in our most bitter, costly battles—at Antietam, at Gettysburg, at the slaughter of Union troops at Fredericksburg, at Chicamauga and Shilo— in exchange for citizenship. Here it is sung poignantly in the incredibly strong voice of Mary Fahl. It is called Going Home

@Espiritus_Corvus And then there’s this haunting contemporary song about an Irish immigrant to England by Ralph McTell. This one makes me cry.

^^Thank you, Jan. I’d never heard that one before. So, now that we’ve begun our day in tears, can it only get better?

Cafe au lait and croissants on the rue des Abbesses?

Oh, bien sûr! Après vous, mon cheri.

Here’s a great one from the year of my birth. Love old Marty Robbins.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=999RqGZatPs

^^Yeah, Marty’s western ballads from the 50’s.

Out in the west Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl…

…..night time would find me at Rosas Cantina, music would play and Felina would whirl…..—One of my all time favorites, The Dead did a great rendition too.—-

That song is so amazing to me. Every word has it’s note, the tempo is perfect to each word—and the words describe an affair that was not very popular with Marty’s fans at the time. In West Texas, falling in love with a Mexican girl was tantamount to miscegenation. I think it took some balls for Marty to put it out there. And then it became a hit. Amazing.

Mississippi Fred McDowell: You got to move

It is an older song but I like Jackson Brownes version of Cocaine

Finnigans Wake
Whiskey in the Jar

I guess these are old enough to be olde tyme:

The Band The Weight
Joan Baez The Night The Drove Old Dixie Down although the Band does a creditable version
CCR Who’ll Stop The Rain
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Mr. Bojangles

The Lost Songs of St. Kilda

Fascinating @rojo

“She will be coming around the mountain when she comes….”

@rojo That’s a great article.