Where Did You Get That Hat?

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"Where Did You Get That Hat?"
Joseph J. Sullivan's Celebrated Comic Song, Where Did You Get That Hat%3F.jpg
Song by Joseph J. Sullivan
Released1888 (1888)
Genre Comic, vaudeville song
Songwriter(s) Joseph J. Sullivan, James Rolmaz

"Where Did You Get That Hat?" is a comic song that was composed and first performed by vaudeville artist Joseph J. Sullivan at Miner's Eighth Avenue Theatre in 1888. It was a great success and soon performed by other music hall artists in the 1890s including George Robey and J. C. Heffron. [1]

Sullivan's original song consisted of three verses, each followed by a chorus, and it was soon included in penny broadsides of the period. [2] Then in 1901, James Rolmaz (who had written a sequel in 1891 titled "A New Hat Now") [3] wrote an additional two verses commenting on elections and the Prince of Wales to give the original song a more political twist, which increased its popularity further. [4] [2]

It has since been performed by other artists such as Stanley Holloway, Al Simmons and Dave Barnes, [5] [6] and Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961).

The song is now also a very popular piece performed for musical theatre exams (grades 4 to 8) and music hall concerts.

References

  1. ↑ "Where Did You Get That Hat?". folksongandmusichall.com. Folk Song And Music Hall. 25 July 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Broadside Ballad Entitled 'Where did You Get That Hat?'". digital.nls.uk. National Library of Scotland. 2004. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  3. ↑ "James Rolmaz: A New Hat Now. Sequel to Where Did You Get That Hat. Comic Song". levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu. Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University. 2024. Retrieved 21 December 2024.
  4. ↑ James Rolmaz, Johnson Ballads 1373, Francis Day and Hunter, 195 Oxford Street, London
  5. ↑ Theodore Raph (1986), "Where Did You Get That Hat", The American song treasury, p. 218, ISBN   978-0-486-25222-3
  6. ↑ Jack Burton, Larry Freeman (1962), The blue book of Tin Pan Alley, vol. 1, Century House, p. 13


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