I don't know where you confirmed this list, but I see several Irving Berlin songs, and a few Gershwin songs with lyrics by Ira, so I can't imagine them being in the public domain yet. Ira only died in the mid 80's, and Berlin in the 90's, and both their estates are sharks about rights to their works. Could these songs have slipped through the cracks of their lawyers? (there's a thought for ya!)
Christopher
Anything they wrote before 1923 is PD. And that includes some fine songs, starting with "Alexander's Ragtime Band," the song that put Irving on the map. Always remember that U.S. law changed from a publication-date + fixed time period to a death date + fixed time period, making the whole thing awfully confusing.
"God Bless America" was written in 1918, but unpublished. He pulled it out of the files 20 years later for Kate Smith, so the legal publication date and copyright date is 1938.
John
On Sep 15, 2004, at 5:34 PM, Chuck Israels wrote:
Here's a list of really good PD songs:
I occurs to me that other George M. Cohan songs (see "Mary" below) may also be PD by now, and there surely are some good ones in his repertoire.
After You've Gone Alexander's Ragtime Band Alice Blue Gown All The Pretty Little Horses Avalon Beale St. Blues Bill Bailey Billy Boy By The Light Of The Silvery Moon Careless Love Chinatown, My Chinatown For Me And My Gal Frankie And Johnny Good Man Is Hard To Find, A High Society Hindustan Humoresque I Ain't Go Nobody I Never Knew I'm Alabamy Bound In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree Indian Summer Indiana Jada Jelly Roll Blues Jingle Bells Johnson Rag Little Brown Jug Londonderry Air March Of The Toys Mary Memphis Blues Moonlight Bay My Melancholy Baby Oh, You Beautiful Doll Play A Simple Melody Poor Butterfly A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With A DixieŠ Rosalie Rose Room Royal Garden Blues St. Louis Blues Shine on, Harvest Moon Sidewalks Of New York Somebody Stole My Gal Song Of India Song Of The Volga Boatmen Strike Up The Band Sweet Adeline Tiger Rag We Wish You A Merry Christmas When The Saints Go Marching In When You Wore A Tulip Whispering You Made Me Love You
I'm old enough to have grown up with most of these!
Chuck
Chuck Israels 230 North Garden Terrace Bellingham, WA 98225-5836 phone (360) 671-3402 fax (360) 676-6055 www.chuckisraels.com _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
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