"By The Light of the Silvery Moon" or "By the Light of the Silv'ry Moon" is a popular song. The music was written by Gus Edwards, and the lyrics by Edward Madden. The song was published in 1909 and first performed on stage by Lillian Lorraine. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era.
The song has been used in a great many television shows and motion pictures. A film of the same title was released in 1953, starring Doris Day. It served as a sequel to On Moonlight Bay, which also starred Doris Day.
The song was originally recorded in C major, but has since been sung in E major (Day) and A major (Jimmy Bowen).
Place park, scene dark, silvery moon is shining through the trees;
Cast two, me, you, sound of kisses floating on the breeze.
Act one, begun. Dialogue, "Where would you like to spoon?"
My cue, with you, underneath the silvery moon.
By the light of the silvery moon,
I want to spoon, to my honey I'll croon love's tune,
Honeymoon keep a-shining in June,
Your silvery beams will bring love dreams, we'll be cuddling soon,
By the silvery moon.
Act two, scene new, roses blooming all around the place;
Cast three, you, me, Preacher with a solemn looking face.
Choir sings, bell rings, Preacher: "You are wed for evermore."
Act two, all through, every night the same encore.
By the light, (By the light, By the light),
Of the silvery moon, (The silvery moon).
I want to spoon, (Want to spoon, Want to spoon)
To my honey I'll croon love's tune.
Honeymoon, (Honeymoon, Honeymoon),
Keep on shining in June. (Keep on shining in June)
Your silvery beams will bring love dreams,
We'll be cuddling soon,
By the silvery moon.
Your silvery beams will bring love dreams,
We'll be cuddling soon,
By the silvery moon. (The silvery moon).
Billy Murray recorded the song Stand Up and Sing for Your Father an Old Time Tune in 1923. The lyrics of Murray's song parody By the Light of the Silvery Moon, portraying an old man who found this new song frivolous.
Oh, I'm sick of all these ditties about "moon" and "spoon" and "June"
So, will you stand up, and sing for your father, an old time
tune!
Billy Murray and Haydn Quartet recorded on December 22, 1910 and released on Victor 16460.
Ada Jones on Edison cylinder 10362 released May 1910.
Fats Waller and His Rhythm, vocal and piano by Fats Waller with the Deep River Boys. Recorded in New York City on July 13, 1942, released on the Bluebird label as catalog number B-11569, the RCA Victor label as catalog number 20-2448A, and by EMI in the UK on the His Master's Voice label as catalog number B 10748.
Doris Day for her album By the Light of the Silvery Moon, Columbia Records, 1953
Jimmy Bowen released a version of the song as the B-side to his 1958 single "The Two Step". It reached #50 on the US pop chart.
Gene Vincent for his album Gene Vincent Rocks and the Blue Caps Roll, Capitol Records, 1958
Little Richard, Specialty Records, 1959
Etta James, 1957
Kidsongs, 1995
The song was featured in a 1931 Fleischer Studios "Follow the bouncing ball" cartoon, that featured Betty Boop and the voice of Eddie Cantor. An earlier Fleischer cartoon "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (1926) was released in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process, as part of the Song Car-Tunes series.
In the 1933 film Turn Back the Clock, The Three Stooges make an early cameo appearance and sing the song.
In the 1939 film Idiot's Delight , Clark Gable sang excerpts from this song while performing in a singing act as part an underemployed showman.
In the 1943 film Heaven Can Wait , the song was used on the theme soundtrack by Alfred Newman.
In the 1946 film The Jolson Story, the young Al Jolson, played by Scotty Beckett and voiced by Rudy Wissler, is shown singing the song in a theatre while performing in a double act with the character Steve Martin (William Demarest). Some license has been taken in this instance as by 1909, the year the song was published, Jolson was aged 23 and is meant to be in his early teens in the scene.
In 1950 film Two Weeks With Love, the song was performed by Jane Powell and Ricardo Montalban.
In a 1952 episode of I Love Lucy, "Lucy's Show Biz Swan Song", the song was sung by Lucy Ricardo and Ethel Mertz (Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance), while the characters were auditioning for Ricky's "Gay Nineties Revue."
The song was featured in the film By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953), and performed by Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp and others throughout the film.
The song was also featured in the film The Producers (1968), Zero Mostel puts a coin in the jukebox of the bar where he is having a drink with Gene Wilder. The title he selects is By The Light of the Silvery Moon. They both, accompanied by a drunkard, start singing the tune.
The song's patter is parodied in a popular The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Audience Participation line for the song "Eddie". lines like "By the light (not the dark but the light)" become lines like "From the day he was born (not the night but the day)" and "She tried in vain (not the artery but the vein)".
In the January 27, 1976 episode of the ABC sitcom Happy Days, titled "Fonzie The Superstar", restaurant owner Arnold (Pat Morita) and Laverne and Shirley (Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams), stall for time by singing the song (very badly) onstage,for a teen audience waiting for Fonzie (Henry Winkler) to come out and sing.
In an All In The Family episode (S6 E15), Archie Bunker and Barney Hefner sang the song as part of a minstrel show.
The song is featured in the second episode of Boardwalk Empire.
The song is briefly heard in Cannonball Run II (1984), when Tim Conway and Don Knotts, playing as a traffic cop duo, sing in front of an abusive orangutan.
The song is featured in the film 18 Again! (1988), and performed by George Burns, Red Buttons, and Charlie Schlatter.
The song is shortly featured in The Haunted Mansion (2003), performed by Shelby Grimm, Harry J. Campbell, William T. Lewis, Tim Reeder, and Bob Hartley.
In the 1988 film The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, Huckleberry sings this song to Desert Flower as opposed to his infamous "Oh My Darling Clementine".
