Teddy Bear’s Picnic

American composer John Bratton wrote the music for “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” in 1907. It was first published by M. Witmark & Sons as a piano work titled “The Teddy Bears Picnic. Characteristic Two Step”. Irishman Jimmy Kennedy added the lyrics in 1932.

Dance Band leader Henry Hall hosted a radio program on the BBC which aired at the peak time of 5:15 pm. Henry soon realized children and their mothers were probably a large part of the audience and wanted something suitable. Unable to find anything, he sent his arranger, Tony Lowery, to Feldman music publishers in Denmark Street, London. Here he saw Jimmy Kennedy (who worked for the company), who recalled the lyrics to “Teddy Bear’s Picnic”. Tony took the music, made an arrangement, and presented it to the band the next day. Hall loved it and broadcast it the same day. The broadcast was a hit, and the BBC was inundated with calls requesting sheet music and recordings. However, Kennedy hadn’t told Feldman about the broadcast, and Feldman were caught off guard with this inundation of requests for music and hadn’t yet made a deal with the American publishers of the music. Feldman did a rapid print run and reprimanded Kennedy by not assigning him royalties.

The first vocal recording was made on 28 September 1932, sung by Val Rosing, and accompanied by Henry Hall and His Orchestra. By the end of the decade, sales had surprised three million records. Until the 1960s, BBC audio engineers pressed special copies of this recording to use test the fidelity of the audio equipment because of its wide range and good tone quality.

References:

J. J. Kennedy, The Man Who Wrote the Teddy Bear’s Picnic: How Irish-born lyricist and composer Jimmy Kennedy became one of the twentieth century’s finest songwriters. Central Milton Keynes: Authorhouse, 2007.

Posted

in

,

by

Greg

Tags:

Featured Content

Problem solving with creativity
“Creativity can solve almost any problem — the creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” — George Lois, American art director, designer and author. G. Lois, Damn good advice (for people with talent!): how to unleash your creative potential by America’s master communicator, London: Phaidon Press, 2012.
The development of keyboard technique
Before the time of Bach, keyboardists would often only use the middle three fingers of each hand and tended to keep their hands flat. Bach taught his students under the new principle of using all the fingers. Beethoven asked his pupils to curve the hand. Source: Marek, George (1969) Beethoven: Biography of a Genius. London: William […]
Cello and piano
The first soundtrack: Snow White
The first soundtrack to be commercially released was Disney’s 1938 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The songs were written by Frank Churchill (music) and Lary Morey (lyrics). The score was written by Churchill and Leigh Harline, with some additional music by Paul Smith. Although Churchill and Morey originally wrote 25 songs for the […]
Lullaby for Berkeley
Title: Lullaby for Berkeley Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Piano duet Level: Piano I – Level 1 (5 finger hand position, left and right hands) Product medium: PDF score & MP3 accompaniment track SAMPLES: (Audio sample of accompaniment track only)
Tchaikovsky as a teacher
Tchaikovsky disliked teaching at the best of times, but he particularly didn’t enjoy teaching female students, most of whom, in this period of history, were of an amateur status: Although it is a dreary business to have been forced to explain to my young men’s classes for eleven consecutive years what a triad consists of, […]
The delicate nature of Chopin’s pianism
Chopin gave a recital in the Gentlemen”s Concert Hall, Manchester, on 28 August 1848. The audience of 1,200 people was the largest Chopin had ever performed to, but Chopin’s delicate playing was not really suited to such a large venue. Conscious of this fact, Chopin requested that another pianist, George Osborne, who was also performing […]
Ode to Music and Moonlight
We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; World-losers and world-forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world for ever, it seems. With wonderful deathless ditties We build up the world’s great cities, And […]
Old into new
An old thing becomes new if you detach it from what usually surrounds it. — Robert Bresson, French filmmaker J. Butler, Star Texts: Image and Performance in Film and Television, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1991, p. 170.
Julius Asal on the exploring darker emotions
When I was younger I read a lot of Kafka and Büchner: I’ve always been drawn to the darker side of things, and I think that part of the beauty of what we do as artists is to dare other people to explore it too. I wish the listener to invest something. Showing up to […]