Oh Promise Me is a song with music by Reginald De Koven and lyrics by Clement Scott. The song was written as an art song in 1887 and first published in 1889 by G. Schirmer, Inc. [1] It is believed that De Koven based the melody of "O Promise Me" partly on "Musica proibita", a popular song by Italian composer Stanislao Gastaldon. [2] In 1890, De Koven wrote his most successful comic opera, Robin Hood , and the song "Oh Promise Me" became a hit song through performances by contralto Jessie Bartlett Davis in the role of Alan-a-Dale. [1]
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Stories about "Oh Promise Me"'s inclusion in Robin Hood often repeat the legend that Davis demanded a song to better show off her voice and threatened to walk out of the production if the producers did not comply. [1] [2] However, the San Francisco Chronicle published a piece on the history of the song in 1905 shortly after Davis's death which draws into question the truthfulness of this narrative. According to it, "Oh Promise Me" was originally interpolated into Robin Hood for tenor Tom Karl in the part of Robin Hood, but his performances of the song in the operetta were unsuccessful with audiences and it was cut from the production as a failure. Davis requested that the song be reinserted for her character and it was transposed into a lower key for her voice. It is this modified version that managed to connect to audiences. [3]
The sheet music sold over a million copies in 1890 and continued to gain popularity for several decades, being performed by many artists. The song remains popular as a wedding song both in America and in the UK.
In 1957, American vocal group The Platters recorded a cover of the song, with authorship credited solely to the group's manager Buck Ram, with no mention of the original composers.
