Dominic Vautier 2/7/2012
Some claim Silver Threads was the first million selling song in America but it took way too long, more that 20 years to do it so I don't think this one counts. Besides sales counts were not kept very well back then.
The melody was composed by Hart Pease Danks, a native of New Haven, Conn. Danks was working as a bass singer and musical director when he composed his only hit song, more by luck I suppose than anything else. The words were done by Eben E. Rexford, a student at Lawrence Colllege, Appleton, Wisconson. It was first published in 1873.
This ballad, however, did not go anywhere for 30 years, when in 1902 when it was dusted off by Richard J. Jose, a tenor with Primose & West’s Minstrels and hit gold.
It is a soft reflective song, sad and resigned. My mother used to sing it to me when I was a little boy. Her mom had taught it to her.
I didn't think that at the time I was much inclined to think about death or old age.
