Gospel Rock - Kum-Ba-Yah (Come By Here)

Topic: Religious Folk Music Revival
The boundary between secular and religious music always has been more important to vocal spokesmen for denominations than it has been to singers and their audiences.  Dick Weissman recalled it took only one minister in Boston to destroy The Journeymen’s recording of “Kumbaya” in 1963 with a campaign to stop radio stations from playing it because they used the phrase “Oh Lordy.” [1]

Music company executives knew well the power of boycotts and negative publicity when Decca Records executives in London agreed in 1968 to record a cantata [2] by an unknown composer that had been commissioned for a school recital [3] and published by the education arm of a major music publisher. [4]  It helped that The Sunday Times described it as “making a breakthrough for pop.” [5]  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat [6] got some good reviews, but not many sales. [7]

Still it provided an entrée for Andrew Lloyd Webber to pitch his idea for a rock opera to Decca’s American counterpart, MCA. [8]  By then, Word Records was making money from folk musicals by Kurt Kaiser and Ralph Carmichael. [9]  However, before MCA invested in an album, it decided to test the market with a release of a single record in 1969. [10]  “Superstar” entered the Billboard popular music chart, dropped, entered, dropped, and finally reentered to rise to 14th place. [11]  That was enough to justify studio time for an album. [12]

The response to the album, and subsequent staging of Jesus Christ Superstar, [13] exposed the chasm that had been deepening in this country since German scholars began using linguistic tools in the late nineteenth century to understand the Bible.  Fundamentalism had emerged in the 1920s to deny the implications of that research.  It produced an alternative narrative that asserted the Bible was the literal truth received directly from God. [14]

John Johnson claimed Lloyd Webber and his lyricist, Tim Rice, “had grown up attending the Church of England, but neither accepted the truth of the Bible, so they adopted the perspective of Judas Iscariot as the narrator.  The musical basically served as a sort of nihilistic passion play, ending with Christ dead, not resurrected.” [15]

Financial men, who are hesitant to gamble on an unknown artist, are more willing to promote imitators after the unknown has succeeded.  Thus, Angela Lansbury’s brother found a student production at the Carnegie Mellon University to bring to a small New York theater in 1971. [16] Godspell [17] was criticized for committing the same heresy as Superstar by men from the evangelical Westmont College. [18]

“Godspell is not a Christian opera.  It may indeed be a sincere attempt at modern theater, but the absence of any understanding of the divinity of Christ precludes Godspell’s classification, as some have assumed, as the avant-garde of a new Christian consciousness in contemporary musical drama.” [19]

It was not a denomination or a religious publisher that issued an anthology containing four songs from Godspell under the title Gospel Rock in 1974.  They not only would not have been able to get their boards to accept religious songs that used popular music, but they lacked the financial resources to pay for publication rights.

Screen Gems, the publisher of Gospel Rock, was owned by Columbia Pictures, [20] who distributed the film version of Godspell in 1973. [21]  It and its rivals contacted composers of every song that entered a Billboard chart to get rights to publish sheet music and folios. [22]  With very few exceptions, [23] every song in Gospel Rock had reached the top fifty, and most had reached the top twenty-five weekly best sellers in their genres.

The collection included a wide range of styles.  Of course, it had some by country-music artists, but it lacked some of the more popular like Kris Kristofferson’s “Why Me?” [24]  While this particular song was represented by a rival publisher, [25] there also may have been an aesthetic decision to avoid lyrics saturated with the theology of abasement and atonement.  George Jones’ “I Wonder How John Felt” [26] was closer to the philosophy of Superstar and Godspell.

Gospel Rock did include some actual rock arrangements, including Three Dog Night’s “Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog” [27] and the Doobie Brothers’ “Jesus Is Just Alright.” [28]

Contemporary African-American music was less represented.  The only Soul song was recorded in London by an Jamaican-born artist living in Germany. [29]  It may be that Barry Gordy [30] and other Black entrepreneurs were less willing to cede control of any of their material to outsiders, than were other copyright holders.

As compensation, Gospel Rock included some spirituals, but only those that had made the Billboard charts.  Jestor Hairson’s original arrangement for “Amen” [31] was used, as well as his “Elijah Rock” that was recorded by Mahalia Jackson. [32]  Hairston had sung in Hall Johnson’s chorus, and later worked with Dimitri Tiomkin in Hollywood. [33]

Many of the other African-American songs were arranged by Albert Gamse, discussed in the post for 12 January 2020.  These included “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” [34] Edwin Hawkin’s “Oh, Happy Day,” [35] and the Highwaymen’s “Michael Row the Boat Ashore.” [36]  The version of “Kum-Ba-Ya” [37] was the one that used the pseudonym Bernardo Gasso.

It is ironic that the men who wrote the original musical productions for conservative churches were left behind by Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell.  Carmichael wanted to do something after he saw rehearsals for Brigadoon [38] at the auditorium owned by the Baptist church which employed him in Los Angeles. [39]  John Peterson was thinking about composing a Christian musical when Singspiration asked him to do a cantata instead. [40]  By the time Lloyd Webber was able to realize their vision, the musical style again had moved beyond the limits accepted by their audiences.

Performers
Same as post for 26 April 2020.

Credits
Same as post for 26 April 2020.

Notes on Lyrics
Same as post for 26 April 2020.

Notes on Music
Same as post for 26 April 2020.

Notes on Performance
The songbook cover featured a drawing of the Godspell cast done in wood-block style by Judith Ann Benedict.

Notes on Performers
Charles Hansen Music, discussed in the post for 12 January 2020, was the most important sheet music publisher in 1970. [41]  Screen Gems was established in 1971 in Miami, Florida, where Hansen had its production operations. [42]  Columbia Pictures sold the company to EMI in 1976. [43]

Screen Gem’s head, Frank Hackinson, [44] was recruited from Hansen. [45]  He stayed with the company through several transfers of ownership, but left just before it was sold to Sony in 1989. [46]  He then founded the FJH Music Company, which specialized in music for public school music programs. [47]

The editor of Gospel Rock seems to have been one of the many nearly anonymous technicians needed by publishing companies.  Bill Radics was described as a “business and creative production manager.” [48]  When Screen Gems was sold, he and Richard Bradley formed their own company, RBR Communications, to issue piano and organ arrangements. [49]

Availability
Book: Bernardo Gasso.  “Kum-Ba-Yah (Come By Here).  Gospel Rock.  Edited by Bill Radics.  Miami, Florida: Screen Gems-Columbia Productions, 1974.  20–21.

End Notes
Billboard sales information is from Wikipedia articles on the songs, unless otherwise noted.

1.  For more details, see the post for 13 October 2019.

2.  Andrew Lloyd Webber.  Unmasked.  New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2018.  96.  Decca was a British company that had separated from the American company of the same name in 1937. [50]

3.  Lloyd Webber.  79–80.
4.  Lloyd Webber.  92.  The publisher was Novello.
5.  Lloyd Webber.  96.

6.  The Joseph Consortium.  Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  KSKC 4973.  1968. [Discogs entry]  This was not the version that opened in New York City at the Royale Theatre on 27 January 1982.

7.  Lloyd Webber.  104–105.
8.  Lloyd Webber.  113.
9.  For more information, see the post for 13 December 2020.
10.  Murray Head.  “Superstar.”  MCA MKS 5019.  1969.  [Discogs entry.]
11.  Wikipedia.  “Superstar (Jesus Christ Superstar Song).”

12.  Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.  Jesus Christ Superstar - A Rock Opera.  Decca DXSA 7206.  1970.  Recorded in London.  [Discogs entry.]

13.  Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.  Jesus Christ Superstar.  Mark Hellinger Theatre, New York City.  12 October 1971–30 June 1973. [51]

14. Wikipedia.  “Historical Criticism” and “Christian Fundamentalism.”

15. John J. Thompson.  Raised by Wolves: The Story of Christian Rock & Roll.  Toronto: ECW Press, 2000.  26.  Thompson’s mother “became a Christian at the end of the Jesus Movement in 1973.” [52]

16.  Wikipedia.  “Godspell.”  Edgar Lansbury was the producer.

17.  Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak.  Godspell.  Cherry Lane Theater, New York City.  17 May 1971. [53]

18.  Westmont College is mentioned briefly in the post for 27 November 2017.

19.  Ronald M. Enroth, Edward E. Ericson, Jr., and C. Breckinridge Peters.  The Jesus People.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eermans Publishing Company, 1972.  154.

20.  Wikipedia.  “Screen Gems.”

21.  Godspell.  Directed by David Greene.  Columbia Pictures.  21 March 1973. [54]

22.  Russell Sanjek.  American Popular Music and Its Business: From 1900 to 1984.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.  541.

23.  The major exception was four songs composed by Gershon Kinglsey.  He was best known at the time for his work with the Moog synthesizer, but he also wrote Jewish liturgical music. [55]  One song, “Shepherd Me, Lord,” [56] later became a favorite of Southern Baptist convention choirs. [57]  I could find no evidence any had been recorded at the time.

24.  Kris Kristofferson.  “Why Me.”  Monument ZS7 8571.  45 rpm.  February 1973.  [Discogs entry.]

25.  Kris Kristofferson.  “Why me?”  Nashville, Tennessee: Resaca Music Publishing Company, 1972; distributed by Big 3.  [WorldCat entry.]

26.  George Jones.  “I Wonder How John Felt (When He Baptized Jesus).”  In A Gospel Way.  Epic KE 32562.  1974.  [Discogs entry.]

27.  Three Dog Night.  “Joy To The World.”  ABC/Dunhill Records.  45-D-4272.  45 rpm.  1971.  It reached #1 on popular chart.

28.  The Doobie Brothers.  “Jesus Is Just Alright.”  Toulouse Street.  Warner Brothers.  BS 2634.  1972.  It reached #35 on popular chart.

29.  Family Child.  “He.”  Anthem AN-203.  45 rpm.  1973.  [Discogs website.]  The album listed Tony Gregory and Family Child. [58]  “He” was described as a “million seller single” for Gregory. [59]  The reason it wasn’t mentioned by Wikipedia was that website was only reporting on Billboard charts for the most popular genres.  International reports rarely were mentioned.

30.  Barry Gordy owned Motown Records.
31.  See the post for 12 July 2020 for details.

32.  Mahalia Jackson.  “Elijah Rock.”  Columbia 4-41322.  45 rpm.  1958.  [Discogs entry.]  Hairston said he learned the key phrase when he and Johnson were collecting songs together. [60]

33.  Wikipedia.  “Jester Hairston.”

34.  “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” entered the popular repertoire after it was published by Kenneth Morris in 1940. [61]

35.  The Edwin Hawkins Singers.  “Oh Happy Day.”  Pavilion Records PBS 20,001.  45 rpm.  1969.  [Discogs entry.]  It was a version of Edward F. Rimbault’s revision [62] of a hymn published in 1755 by Philip Doddridge. [63]  It reached #4 on the popular, #22 on Easy Listening chart, and #2 on the Rhythm and Blues chart.

36.  “Michael” is discussed in the post for 13 October 2019.  It reached #1 on the popular and Easy Listening charts.

37.  Tommy Leonetti’s version reached #54 on the popular chart and #4 on the Easy Listening chart.  The Sandpiper’s version reached #9 on the popular chart and #3 on the Easy Listening chart.

38.  Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.  Brigadoon.  Ziegfeld Theater, New York City.  13 March 1947–31 July 1948. [64]

39.  Ralph Carmichael.  He’s Everything to Me.  Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1986.  84.  Carmichael is discussed in the post for 15 December 2017.

40.  John W. Peterson.  The Miracle Goes On.  With Richard Engquist.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.  170.  Peterson is discussed in the post for 2 August 2020.

41.  Sanjeck.  541.  “So dominant was Hansen’s market position that they once controlled the print rights for 99 of the 100 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles chart.” [65]

42.  Jim Melanson.  “Hansen, Screen Gems-Columbia Expand Their Publishing Influences.”  Billboard 86:F-6, F-12:23 March 1974.

43.  Herbert Koshetz.  “Columbia Pictures in Pact To Sell Music Unit to EMI.”  The New York Times.  24 June 1976.  45.

44.  Melanson.
45.  “Frank J. Hackinson.”  FJH Music Company website.
46.  Wikipedia, Screen Gems.
47.  FJH.
48.  “Bradley and Radics Bow New Print Co.”  Record World.  29 January 1977.  20.
49.  Item. [Decatur, Illinois] Herald and Review.  18 August 1984.  6.
50.  Wikipedia.  “Decca Records.”
51.  Wikipedia.  “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
52.  Thompson.  13.
53.  Wikipedia, Godspell.
54.  Wikipedia.  “Godspell (Film).”
55.  Wikipedia.  “Gershon Kingsley.”

56.  Samuel Rosenbaum and Gershon Kingsley.  “Shepherd Me, Lord.”  New York: Bourne Company, 1971.

57.  “Gershon Kingsley.”  Milken Archive of Jewish Music website.

58.  Tony Gregory and Family Child.  “He.”  One More Time.  Polydor 2396 104.  Recorded in London, 1973.  [Discogs entry.]

59.  Tony Gregory (Jamaica).  Ochos Rios Jazz Festival website.  2017.

60.  Notes for Rogue Community College, Grants Pass, Oregon, winter concert on 16 March 2014.

61.  Horace Clarence Boyer.  How Sweet the Sound.  Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995. 75.  Morris is mentioned in the post for 14 February 2021.

62.  William McDonald.  Wesleyan Sacred Harp.  Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1854.  Cited by “[O happy day that fixed my choice] (Rimbault).”  Hymnary website.  Its source was William Jensen Reynolds.  Companion to Baptist Hymnal.  Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1976.

63.  John Julian.  “Doddridge, Philip.”  Dictionary of Hymnology.  Edited by Julian.  London: John Murray, 1907 edition. 305–306.

64.  “Brigadoon.”  Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) website.
65.  FJH

Bernard Gasso - Kum Ba Yah (Come By Here)

Topic: Religious Folk Music Revival
Tommy Leonetti’s version of "Kumbaya" was released when the various components of the music industry were adapting to the transition from songs to performances. As mentioned in the posts for 12 April 2020 and 19 April 2020, radio acknowledged what then was called the generation gap with the creation of a separate adult, East Listening format that attracted different advertisers than did the one used by stations which played songs from Billboard’s top forty records.

The music publishing business already had adapted to the folk-music revival with popular collections like the one edited by Albert Gamse that was discussed in the post for 12 January 2020. When Leonetti’s version became popular, Gamse’s publisher repackaged his version under the name Bernard Gasso.

It issued a sheet music edition that attempted to reconstruct the African original for Leonetti’s arrangement. The spoken interlude asked the Lord to "speak to me" because the singer was "lost in a jungle of bewilderment." The deity was imagined as a "voice in the murmur of a breeze." It ended with a request that the Lord "come be here and help me find my way."

Gamse thought "Kum Ba Yah" came from Nigeria. When this was published, the Biafran war for independence was in its second year and footage of starving Igbo was being aired by United States television stations. [1]

The United Kingdom had taken control of the mouth of the Niger River in the 1865 and extended its control north to the area where the river forked. The Islamic Hausa lived north of the river, the Yorùbá to the west, and the Igbo to the east. The Igbo had revolted when they feared their autonomy was threatened by the increased power of groups in the north. [2]

Jazz historians had traced important elements of the music in Cuba and Brazil to the Yorùbá, [3] who had been exported as slaves to those areas after the slave trade with the United States ended. As mentioned in the posts for 8 September 2020 and 29 September 2019, Igbo were the primary group brought to Virginia.

The sheet music cover page alluded to this Afro-Caribbean heritage with a black-and-white woodblock reproduced on a yellow-orange background. The bare-chested African male was beating a large floor drum like the Congas used by Latin music groups in New York. [4]

Gamse probably had no say in the choice of artwork. It may only be a coincidence that he had begun as an arranger and adapter of Cuban music for United States artists.

Except for the interlude, the arrangement was the same as the one published earlier with the personalization of the lyrics to "I" and "me" rather than "someone." It ended with the "I need you" verse.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: single melodic line
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
"This was originally a Nigerian chant, interpreted in a negro gospel song as ‘Come By Here, Oh Lord’."

Adaptation by Bernard Gasso

© Copyright 1969 by Lewis Music Publishing Co., Inc.

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no specification
Verses: kumbaya, crying, praying, need

Vocabulary
Pronoun: me, I
Term for Deity: Lord

Special Terms: spoken interlude used African imagery ("I’m lost is a jungle of bewilderment")

Basic Form: 5-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: spoken interlude between first and third verses

Notes on Music
Exactly like version discussed in post for 12 January 2020.

Notes on Performers
Bernard Gasso was a pen name used by Albert Gamse, [5] who was discussed in the post for 12 January 2020.

Availability
Sheet Music: Bernard Gasso. "Kum Ba Yah (Come By Here)." New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1969.

End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Nigerian Civil War," and "Biafran Airlift."
2. Wikipedia. "History of Nigeria."

3. Melville Herskovits suggested slaves from Dahomey sired drumming patterns in the New World. [6] The Oye Empire, Dahomey, and Yorùbá were terms that followed one another historically, but covered much the same area in Benin and Nigeria. [7] Marshall Stearns adopted Herskovits’ taxonomy of African-descended groups in the New World [8] in The Story of Jazz in 1956. [9]

4. The cover is reproduced in the copy of "African Iconography of ‘Kumbaya’" posted to Academia.edu.

5. Entry for "Guantanamera." 1968. Library of Congress. Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third series. July-December. 1734. "adaptation & m arr. Bernard Gasso, pseud. of Albert Gamse."

6. Melville J. Herskovits. The Myth of the Negro Past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958 edition. It first was published in 1941.

7. Paul E. Lovejoy. "The Yoruba Factor in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade." 40-55 in The Yoruba Diaspora. Edited by Toyin Falola and Matt D. Childs. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.

8. Herskovits. 16.

9. Marshall Stearns. The Story of Jazz. New York: New American Library, 1958 edition. Chapters 2 and 3.

Albert Gamse - Kum Ba Ya

Topic: Commercial Folk Music Revival
"Kumbaya" achieved its canonical status within the folk-music revival repertoire when it spread from individuals learning to play guitar to those who grew up playing piano. It appeared in one of the collections created for amateurs who played for themselves and friends in 1968.

Abe Ashley’s music company specialized in such anthologies. The editor of The Best of Folk Music had previously overseen compilations of the World’s Favorite Easy to Play Piano Duets, [1] World’s Favorite Sacred Songs for Church and Home, [2] and World’s Favorite Songs of "The Gay Nineties." [3]

Albert Gamse began writing English lyrics for Latin songs like "Amapola." [4] When musical taste changed after the emergence of Elvis Presley in the late-1950s, a friend recommended him to Ashley. The publisher was looking for a "research man." Irving Fields said Gamse "knew all the composers, knew what was in the public domain, the whole history of composing, lyric writing and so forth." [5]

His Best of Folk Music eschewed the regional-occupational classification used by Carl Sandburg [6] and John Lomax, [7] for a topical organization that featured love songs, love gone wrong songs, and bad men. There was a small section of blues and a larger one of international songs that included "Kum Ba Yah."

The Workers songs mixed the familiar "I’ve Been Working On The Railroad" with Tennessee Ernie Ford’s "Sixteen Tons." [8] The other two were "Drill Ye Tarriers" and "John Henry" that appeared in every folk-song collection.

In addition, the book had an opening section of New Folk Songs that included songs and pictures of Glen Campbell, Bobby Goldsboro, Tom Jones, Buffy Saint-Marie, Trini Lopez, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

The most current songs were copyrighted arrangements whose publishers, no doubt, received royalties. The rest were controlled by Lewis Publications. The primary change in "Kum Ba Yah" was in the pronoun. Gamse substituted "hear me" for someone, and added his own verse, "I need you."

He used no sharps or flats, but used more varied chords than guitar arrangements did for the key of C. The arrangement relied on chords on most notes, with the little finger of the right hand playing the melody in places where it wasn’t used in the chord. It was easily within the abilities of someone who had had only a few piano lessons. [9]

Abe Schlager, the president of Lewis Music, [10] published a second volume in 1969 under the name Alexander Shealy. [11] It followed the same format, with the first songs by popular artists (Joni Mitchell, Bobby Vinton, and The Beatles). [12]

Both books were reissued with modifications in the opening songs to reflect changes in popular taste. [13] The first replaced one song of nine, [14] while the second kept three of ten. [15]

Ashley’s company was both a publisher and a distributor. The exact relationship between it and Slager’s isn’t clear, but the distribution for both seems to have been transferred to Charles Hansen in 1971. [16] Hansen also handled works recorded by Campbell. [17]

Hansen issued the two Lewis volumes as the Golden Encyclopedia of Folk Music in 1973. [18] It dropped most of the songs that required royalties plus a few others that may have had copyright problems like "The Crime of Tome Dula" [19]

The legal relationship between Hansen, Ashley, and Lewis may have been contractual rather than proprietary. Much of Hansen’s catalog "was acquired by Warner Brothers Publications, then subsequently sold to Alfred Publications," [20] while the others became part of the Music Sales Group. [21] It sold its operations to Hal Leonard in 2018. [22]

Leonard continues to distribute the Golden Encyclopedia under the Lewis Publishing Company name. However, WorldCat listed Leonard as the distributor in 1985. Leonard’s books carry no publication information.

Gamse’s version of "Kumbaya" did not enter tradition. People who bought his collection may not have cared. Most were capable of playing music and singing their own words. [23] Ashley and Schlager assumed people bought their books because they wanted to play songs they already knew, not learn new ones. Their goal was not edification, but gratification.

Performers
Vocal Soloist: none
Vocal Group: unison
Instrumental Accompaniment: piano, guitar
Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
"This Nigerian melody found its way into a negro spiritual called ‘Come by Here, Oh Lord’ and (through the rephrasing of which the tongue is so often guilty) it became popularly known as ‘Kum Ba Ya,’ and as such it took its place in our folklore."

© 1968 by Lewis Music Publishing Co., Inc.

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: no note
Verses: kumbaya, hear me crying, hear me praying, I need you

Vocabulary
Pronoun: me, I
Term for Deity: Lord
Special Terms: none

Basic Form: 4-verse song
Verse Repetition Pattern: none
Ending: none
Unique Features: use of first-person pronoun

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Time Signature: 4/4
Tempo: slowly (like a hymn)
Key Signature: no sharps or flats
Chords: C Em Am Dm⁷ G⁷ F

Basic Structure: strophic repetition
Singing Style: one syllable to one note except for final "Lord"

Vocal-Accompaniment Dynamics: piano plays triads in the right hand and 1-5 chords in the left on every syllable except "kum ba" and "my Lord"

Notes on Performers
The only biographical information available on Gamse on the internet was he was born 31 July 1901 "in Russian Empire [now Latvia]" and died March, 1974 "in Bronx, New York" [24]

His first work listed by Discogs was the 1940 "Rhumba-Cardi" recorded by Xavier Cugat with Dinah Shore singing. [25] The next year, bands led by Count Basie, Les Brown, Bob Crosby, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Glenn Miller, and Alvino Rey recorded songs with lyrics he’d written. [26]

Herbert Marks [27] introduced Gamse to Irving Fields. [28] Fields recalled:

"Gamse is a genius. I wrote most of my biggest hits with him. He was a very quiet man who didn’t care about money or material things. He just loved to write lyrics. His biggest thrill was to go to Mexico once a year and he was fantastic with Latin music." [29]

Fields added "Albert had a sense of humor, and he was very articulate, sort of like a Rex Harrison type, very suave." [30]

Gamse’ taste may have been his most indelible quality. A recorder player said she "always liked the Albert Gamse books [. . .] for the variety of folk literature and historical repertoire. The player is able to enjoy some known melodies, but is challenged to learn much unfamiliar music." [31]

Availability
Book: Albert Gamse. "Kum Ba Ya." The Best of Folk Music. Book 1. New York: Lewis Music Publishing Company, 1968; sixth printing of March 1969. 222.

Book: "Kum Ba Ya." Golden Encyclopedia of Folk Music. New York: Charles Hansen Educational Music and Books, 1973. 316. WorldCat listed Alexander Shealy as compiler and Albert Gamse as editor.

Book: "Kum Ba Yah." Golden Encyclopedia of Folk Music. New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1985; distributed by Hal Leonard. [32] 316.

End Notes
1. Albert Gamse. World’s Favorite Easy to Play Piano Duets. New York: Ashley Publications, Inc. 1960.

2. Albert Gamse. World’s Favorite Sacred Songs for Church and Home. New York: Ashley Publications, 1961.

3. Albert Gamse. World’s Favorite Songs of "The Gay Nineties." New York: Ashley Publications, 1962.

4. "Amapola" was written in 1920 by Joseph Lacalle. [33] It was recorded throughout the 1920s and 1930s by Latin artists. [34] Gamse wrote the now familiar English lyrics in 1940. [35] It was recorded by Xavier Cugat, Les Brown, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, [36] and Sammy Kay in 1941. [37]

5. Irving Fields. The Pianos I Have Known. As told to Tony Sachs. New York: Roman Midnight Music, 2012. 91–92.

6. Sandburg was discussed in the post for 5 May 2019.
7. Lomax was discussed in the post for 12 May 2019.

8. "Tennessee" Ernie Ford. "Sixteen Tons." Capitol Records F3262. 1955. [38] The song was written and first recorded by Merle Travis. [39]

9. One Amazon customer had problems with the standard publishing format. CDH complained "that in songs with multiple verses, the lyrics after the first one or two verses are shown separately at the bottom of the score. This Is probably not an issue for a more accomplished musician than myself." [40]

10. New York Supreme Court. Appellate Division–First Department. Lewis Music Publishing Company, Inc., against Shapiro, Bernstein and Company, Inc. 1969. 35.

11. The copyright catalog for 1973 identifies Alexander Shealy as a pseudonym for Abe Schlager. [41]

12. Alexander Shealy. The Best of Folk Music. Book Two. New York: Lewis Publishing, 1969. The first pages were missing from my copy, so I don’t know which printing.

13. I don’t know how often the two collections were revised. Each went through a number of printings, and I only purchased two copies of each.

14. Albert Gamse. The Best of Folk Music. Book One. New York: Lewis Music Publishing Company, tenth printing in 1970.

15. Alexander Shealy. The Best of Folk Music. Book Two. Miami Beach, Florida: Hansen Publications, fifth printing in 1971. My copy has a Japanese subtitle on the front cover and appears to be a photocopied version.

16. "Hansen-MDS In Buy Talk." Billboard. 4 December 1971. 4. MDS was "Abe Ashley’s Music Dealers Service."

17. Wikipedia. "Chas. H. Hansen Music Corp."
18. The date "9-25-73" appeared on the inside cover advertisements for the Hansen book.

19. The legal fight over the rights to "Tom Dooley" were mentioned in the post for 20 October 2019.

20. Wikipedia, Hansen.
21. Wikipedia entry for "Music Sales Group" listed them as imprints.

22. "Music Sales is now a pureplay publisher with $50m+ in the bank, after selling books and retail business." Music Business Worldwide website. 4 April 2018.

23. One Amazon customer begged to differ. Mary PB wrote "I don’t know where they got the versions of some of these songs. I played some of my favorite songs and either the melody line was strange or the lyrics different or both." [42]

24. "Albert Gamse (1901–1974)." Google’s Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website.

25. Dinah Shore and Xavier Cugat Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. "The Rhumba Cardi." Victor 26665. Recorded 26 June 1940. [43] Discogs mistakenly listed it as 1938.

26. "Albert Gamse." Discogs website. It has a photograph of him.

27. Herbert Marks was the son of the man who founded Edward B. Marks Music Company. In 1929, he heard "The Peanut Vendor" in Havana, Cuba, and introduced it into the United States. The New York Times credited him with starting a "demand for Latin American music." [44] He took over the publishing company when his father died in 1945. [45]

28. Fields. 90.
29. Fields. 91.
30. Fields. 91.

31. Kay Hettich. Comment posted 1 July 2013. Amazon website for Hal Leonard’s 1996 edition of The Best Recorder Method - Yet!: Book 1. Lewis Music Publishing issued it in 1974.

32. WorldCat.
33. Wikipedia. "Amapola (Song)"
34. "Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy)." Second Hand Songs website.

35. "Amapola." Library of Congress. Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third series. July-December 1967. 2303. Copyright renewal notice.

36. Second Hand Songs.
37. "Victor Matrix BS-060462." Discography of Historic American Recordings website.
38. "‘Tennessee’ Ernie Ford – Sixteen Tons." Discogs website.
39. Wikipedia. "Sixteen Tons."

40. CDH. Comment posted 26 January 2018. Amazon website for Hal Leonard’s 1985 edition of Golden Encyclopedia Of Folk Music.

41. Catalog of Copyright Entries; Third Series. January-June 1973. 1598.

42. Mary PB. Comment posted 24 May 2014. Amazon website for Hal Leonard’s 1985 edition of Golden Encyclopedia Of Folk Music.

43. "Victor matrix BS-051569." Discography of American Historical Recordings website.
44. Herbert Marks. Obituary. The New York Times 2 November 1984. D18.
45. "The Marks History." Edward B. Marks Music Company website.