On This Day

"Shine On, Harvest Moon" by Ada Jones & Billy Murray hits #1

"Shine On, Harvest Moon" is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era.

"Shine On, Harvest Moon" is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 to great acclaim. It became a pop standard, and continues to be performed and recorded in the 21st century.

During the vaudeville era, songs were often sold outright, and the purchaser would be credited as the songwriter. John Kenrick's Who's Who in Musicals credits the song's actual writers as Edward Madden and Gus Edwards. However, David Ewen's All the Years of American Popular Music credits Dave Stamper, who contributed songs to 21 editions of the Ziegfeld Follies and was Bayes' pianist from 1903 to 1908.

Historical Significance

"Shine On, Harvest Moon" is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth.

Events Before

  1. Henri Farman becomes the first person to fly an observed circuit of more than 1km, winning the Grand Prix d'Aviation

    Henri Farman becomes the first person to fly an observed circuit of more than 1km, winning the Grand Prix d'Aviation

  2. Katie Mulcahey is arrested for lighting a cigarette, violating the one-day-old "Sullivan Ordinance" banning women from s

    Katie Mulcahey is arrested for lighting a cigarette, violating the one-day-old "Sullivan Ordinance" banning women from smoking in public, and is fined $5. Appearing before the judge, she states, “I’ve got as much right to smoke as you have. I never heard of this new law, and I don’t want to hear abo

  3. Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell publishes "Scouting for Boys" as a manual for self-instruction in outdoor skills

    Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell publishes "Scouting for Boys" as a manual for self-instruction in outdoor skills and self-improvement. The book becomes the inspiration for the Scout Movement.

  4. King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luís Filipe, are assassinated by Republican sympathizers in Terreiro do P

    King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luís Filipe, are assassinated by Republican sympathizers in Terreiro do Paço, Lisbon

  5. Italian football club Inter Milan is founded as Football Club Internazionale

    Football Club Internazionale Milano, widely referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, and commonly known as Inter Milan outside Italy, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan,…

Events After

  1. Author James Weldon Johnson (38) weds civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson (24) at her family's home

    Author James Weldon Johnson (38) weds civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson (24) at her family's home

  2. 13th Dalai Lama (Thupten Gyatso) flees Tibet for British India to escape Chinese troops

    The Dalai Lama (UK: , US: ; Tibetan: ཏཱ་ལའི་བླ་མ་, Wylie: Tā la'i bla ma [táːlɛː láma]) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism.

  3. First seaplane takes off from water under its own power, piloted by Henri Fabre from the Étang de Berre lagoon in Martig

    First seaplane takes off from water under its own power, piloted by Henri Fabre from the Étang de Berre lagoon in Martigues, France

  4. First night air flight by Claude Grahame-White takes place in England

    The 1910 London to Manchester air race took place between two aviators, each of whom attempted to win a heavier-than-air powered flight challenge between London and Manchester.

  5. Film producer Samuel Goldwyn (27) weds first wife Blanche Lasky

    Film producer Samuel Goldwyn (27) weds first wife Blanche Lasky

More from the 1900s

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on June 12, 1909?
"Shine On, Harvest Moon" is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs of the era. The song was debuted by Bayes and Norworth in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908 to great acclaim.
Why is "Shine On, Harvest Moon" by Ada Jones & Billy Murray hits #1 significant?
"Shine On, Harvest Moon" is a popular early-1900s song credited to the married vaudeville team Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth.

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