88. 1 January 1922
Billy Jones & Ernest Hare
Tuck Me To Sleep In My Old Tucky Home
Written by Sam M Lewis, Joe Young & George W Meyer
No.2 for 1 week
No.1 at the time Paul Whiteman – Say It With Music
Billy Jones achieved his second no.2 single following his solo hit Peggy O Neill the previous year. This time however he recorded with his regular partner in the Happiness Boys Ernest Hare who had never been higher than no.5 in the bi-weekly charts. The song that hit no.2 was Tuck Me To Sleep In My Tucky Home, a play on words on the familiar state of Kentucky (not its official nickname as that was the Bluegrass State). In the song, they were pining for the home state that they had moved away from and now missed terribly, old Kentucky cradled me when I was born, old Kentucky how I miss your field of corn. But instead of weeping at night in bed, they decided to return. They also missed their mammy, old and grey, especially missed her kisses, I aint had a bit of rest since I left my mammy’s nest, so tuck me to sleep in my old ‘Tucky home, just let the sun kiss my cheeks every morn, let me stay there never more to roam. In the second verse which they didn’t sing, they sang about their mammy and didn’t expect to find her still waiting there for them as she presumably would have died while they’d been away. It was the second time, peaking at no.2 for all three composers, Sam M Lewis and Joe Young having previously written Hello Central Give Me No Man’s Land in 1918 and George W Meyer another song extolling the virtues of an American state, Everything Is Peaches Down In Georgia, also in 1918.
89. 1 February 1922
Al Jolson
Yoo Hoo
Written by Al Jolson & Buddy De Sylva
No.2 for 2 weeks
No.1 at the time Paul Whiteman – April Showers & Ray Miller – The Sheik Of Araby
Sometimes Al Jolson was given a composing credit because he added some of his personality to the song and ad-libbed some lyrics but this time on the song Yoo Hoo he actually did compose the melody with Buddy DeSylva writing the lyrics. Yoo Hoo meant quite a few different things, when a girl heard him calling it underneath her window, it meant he had left her behind but now he was home to stay and when she replied with the same, it made his dreams come true because when she called yoo hoo it meant I love you. She was a childhood sweetheart and yoo hoo meant something very different back in our days of happy childhood, it meant please come out and play. So now they were adults it meant some adult themes. After singing it though, Jolson went into his trademark trilling whistling for one complete verse. Yoo Hoo was Al Jolson’s third no.2 single on the bi-weekly charts and by far his most cheerful song at that position, following Hello Central Give Me No Man’s Land and Tell Me (Why Nights Are Lonely).
90. 1 March 1922
Elsie Baker & Elliot Shaw
Ka Lu A
Written by Anne Caldwell & Jerome Kern
No.2 for 2 weeks
No.1 at the time Ray Miller – The Sheik Of Araby
Elsie Baker who had several top ten hits throughout the 1910s both under her own name and also using the pseudonym Edna Brown but none had reached as high as no.2 in the charts until she paired up as a duet with Elliott Shaw a member of The Victor Light Opera Company and The Shannon Four. The music was composed by Jerome Kern who had previously written several major songs going back to 1906 but none of them had hit the bi-weekly charts to date. Despite the title and the lyrics, this was not a Hawaiian song, there was none of the sounds associated with the island like the slide guitar or ukulele and Baker and Shaw sang Ka Lu A as an old fashioned soprano/baritone duet, when it’s moonlight in Ka-lu-a, night like this divine, it was moonlight in Ka-lu-a, when your kisses met mine, although the rose and jasmine bloom as fair, and love is calling through the scented air everywhere, it is lonely in Ka-lu-a, because you are not there.
91. 15 April 1922
Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra
Dear Old Southland
Written by Turner Layton
No.2 for 3 weeks
No.1 at the time Ray Miller – On The Gin Gin Ginny Shore & Al Jolson – Angel Child
This time the song Dear Old Southland was written both as an instrumental in which the melody was strong enough to stand up without being sung composed by Turner Layton with lyrics by Henry Creamer that spoke of dear old Southland I hear you calling me and I long how I long to roam back to my old Kentucky home, dear old Southland for you my heart is yearning and I long just to see once more. The original vocal version was by Vernon Dalhart and the original instrumental was by James P Johnson, an African-American like the composers, but it was Paul Whiteman who made the commercial recording that took the song to no.2 for his third single to peak in the runner-up position.
92. 1 June 1922
Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra
Georgia
Written by Walter Donaldson
No.2 for 2 weeks
No.1 at the time Paul Whiteman – Three O Clock In The Morning
Georgia was described on the sheet music as a song of a sunny southern state and it was one of the songs that Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra took into the charts in July 1922 when he occupied the top four positions on the bi-weekly chart that week. Georgia as played by Paul Whiteman was an instrumental and specifically stated it was a fox-trot, the most popular dances of the early 1920s which had evolved from the now old-fashioned two-step, one of the main reasons that the Whiteman orchestra became so successful, that he tapped into the demand for orchestral music that couples could fox-trot to. Lyrics were written by Howard E Johnson which extolled the virtues of the State which drew you back if you ever left it, morning night and noon I’m all out of tune, until I go to bed to rest my weary head, then it always seems on a train of dreams, I can feel I’m drawing near to a Dixie atmosphere, somehow here of late I’ve been in a state of nervous worriment I just can’t be content, now I plainly see I can only be in a peaceful state of mind in the state I left behind way down in Georgia Georgia my home sweet home how I’ve adored ya, Georgia oh my oh why did I roam I know that I’ll be so HA double PY when I see my MA double MM Y, I’m heading toward ya Georgia, you put the sweet in home sweet home my own Georgia.
93. 1 September 1922
Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra
Neath The South Sea Moon
Written by Louis A Hirsch, Dave Stamper & Victor Herbert
No.2 for 2 weeks
No.1 at the time Paul Whiteman – Three O Clock In The Morning
Neath The South Sea Moon provided Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra with yet another single that stopped in the number two position behind another of his hits, in this case, Three O Clock In The Morning. Although yet again, he didn’t use the lyrics written, for this single he credited all the composers and lyricists on the record label. The song was about how wonderful it was to wander and roam neath the South Sea moon, by the love lagoon so blue, where the balmy breeze blows sweet melodies, over the silver sands we’ll stray on the coral strands we’ll play and I’d love to be for eternity, the high road the city the billowy foam, I’m one who has answered the call, the wanderlust beckons I pack up and go, the world is a playground to me, but since I’ve met you dear I want you to know there’s one place that I want to be.
94. 1 October 1922
Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra
Hot Lips
Written by Henry Busse, Henry Lange & Lou Davis
No.2 for 1 week
No.1 at the time Paul Whiteman – Three O Clock In The Morning
Henry Busse was one of the trumpeters in Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra and he had written a song called Hot Lips, a tribute to trumpet players and was subtitled When He Plays Jazz He’s Got Hot Lips. The lyrics which were not used spoke of, he’s got hot lips when he plays Jazz, he draws out step like no one has, you’re on your toes and shake your shoes, boy how he goes when he plays Blues, I watch the crowd until he’s through, he can be proud they’re cuckoo too, his music’s rare you must declare the boy is there, with two hot lips, he’s got hot lips. Henry Busse was given the opportunity to play the trumpet solo which entered after about a minute and a half and lasted for nearly two further minutes, but Whiteman had always believed in giving his musicians who were considered to be some of the best performing in a bog band orchestra setting, a chance to show off their talents. It provided Paul Whiteman with his fifth no.2 in total and third consecutive song to peak in the runner-up position.
95. 1 December 1922
Bar Harbor Society Orchestra
Chicago (That Toddling Town)
Written by Fred Fisher
No.2 for 1 week
No.1 at the time Ed Gallagher & Al Shean – Mister Gallagher And Mister Shean
The song Chicago (That Toddling Town) alludes to the city’s colourful past and mentioned things that had happened in the town including the evangelist Billy Sunday who had attempted to close the city down and the fact that on State Street they do things that they don’t do on Broadway, the highlight being that once I saw a man having the time of his life and he was dancing with his wife. It was taken to no.2 in the bi-weekly charts by The Ben Harbor Society Orchestra, a jazz-dance band featuring cornetist Jules Levy and saxophonists Nathan Glantz and Charles Dornberger who all went on to form their own orchestras later in the 1920s. Chicago (That Toddling Town) without the part in brackets because by the late-1950s nobody would have understood what Fred Fisher had meant by a Toddling town, was later covered by Frank Sinatra on his album Come Fly With Me.
The pop music charts 