Teasing

Dominic Vautier  1/7/2011


The music for this song was written by Albert Von Tilzer.  He was a self-taught pianist, who came to New York City at the turn of the century from Indianapolis, mostly because of his brother Harry.  Albert had an inherent gift for composition and music melody.  Both of these brothers were versatile and could turn out ballads and comedy songs with equal facility.  Most of Harry’s songs, however, were more sentimental, based on some human-interest incident that he had witnessed or heard about.  Instead Albert looked to news items and headlines for inspiration.

Both Harry and Albert Von Tilzer enjoyed the spotlight, but where Harry had stepped from behind the footlights into Tin Pan Alley, Albert reversed the process, playing the Orpheum circuit for several seasons after he had written such million sellers as Take Me Out To The Ball Game.

Albert Von Tilzer was partial to two lyricists who knew their way around a lyric through stage experience: Jack Norworth, who headlined in vaudeville and musical comedy, and Junie McCree, whose portrayal of a “dope” in the two-a-day led to Broadway engagements in girl-and-music shows and revues. Later, Lew Brown collaborated with Albert, starting a brilliant career as a songwriter that reached its zenith in the 1920s when DeSylva, Brown and Henderson were tops in Tin Pan Alley.

So here's this little number Teasing.


 

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Back cover


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