I'm Just Wild About Harry and Harry's Wild About Me

"I'm Just Wild About Harry" (1921) is a song written by Eubie Blake (music) and Noble Sissle (lyrics) for the Broadway production of Shuffle Along, written by Blake, Sissle, F. E. Miller, and Aubrey Lyles. The song was the most popular number in the first successful Broadway theater production to have an all African-American cast. The show and, in particular, the song broke what had been a taboo against musical and theatrical depictions of romantic love between African-Americans. Harry S. Truman selected "I'm Just Wild About Harry" as his campaign song for the United States presidential election of 1948. Its success in politics led to a popular revival. This Piano Roll was recorded live on the QRS Marking Piano on May 19, 1973 when Eubie Blake was 90 years young, (tho there is evidence that he was merely 86). Whatever may be the case, Eubie, famously quoted "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself", spent the day recording several selections and improvising at the marking piano, many of which were produced as Celebrity Series Hand-played rolls. The piano seen & heard is my old warhorse HOMER by Mason & Risch Solodant expression upright that I restored, rebuilt from junk really, more than 20 years ago. I have added a variable speed vacuum pump in the basement as well as auto rewind/repeat. The foot pump mechanism remains and is used on occasion. :-) Please pardon the audiovisual quality...still learning the bells & whistles of this Pentax Optio camera.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Playerpiano
• Hand Played Rolls
• Eubie Blake

[vtnwesley]

I like your cat. I bet it loves the piano as much as us youtube-folk.

[TheMadisonHang]

thanks for the history

[wuloki]

Your roll is incredible great. I've never heard a roll of him which is so clearly recognizable as Eubie Blake. What makes this even more interesting, just three days later he recorded a LP (EBM-5) in Morristown. On the cover it reads: "Just returning from his first plane trip ever (to the QRS piano roll factory in Buffalo, New York [...])".