Don't Forget Me Little Darling: A Song History
A song titled “Don’t Forget Me, Little Darling!” was published as sheet music in Cincinnati by A. Squire in 1874, and the Library of Congress holds a copy.[1] The first page of music credits the words to C. W. Vance and the music to R. S. Crandall, and it carries an 1874 copyright notice in Squire’s name.[1] The cover bills it as a song and chorus and dedicates it to a Miss Alice Sherwood of St. Louis, and the Library catalogs it as a four-part mixed chorus with piano.[1]
Goodwin & Company, Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis palustris), from the Flowers series for Old Judge Cigarettes, commercial color lithograph, 1890. Shown for the flower's name; the card has no connection to the song.
By the late 1920s the title was on record: Buell Kazee recorded it for Brunswick in New York on January 17, 1928, and the Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) credits Crandall and Vance as its writers.[2] The Carter Family recorded it at the ARC studios in New York on May 7, 1935, with Sara Carter singing lead, Maybelle Carter on harmony, A. P. Carter on bass, and two guitars.[3] DAHR lists that side on the ARC, Vocalion, Conqueror, Melotone and Columbia labels, and again credits Vance’s lyric and Crandall’s music.[3]
Sources differ on who wrote the Carter song, because the Traditional Ballad Index files the Carter record under a lost-love song of the same title, lists its author as unknown, and gives its earliest date as 1920, from the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore.[4] The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection holds a recording of a song with this title sung by Mrs. Haden Robinson, listed under Fayetteville, Arkansas, and dated November 26, 1960.[5] Jim Miller arranges it in DGD tuning in 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1, a 42-page book of solo mountain dulcimer arrangements with tablature, lyrics and chord symbols, published by Fingers Of Steel.[6]
Sources
- Library of Congress: "Don't forget me, little darling!" (Cincinnati: A. Squire, 1874).
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Brunswick matrix E26055-E26056. Don't forget me, little darling / Buell Kazee".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "ARC matrix 17479. Don't forget me little darling / Carter Family".
- Traditional Ballad Index: "Don't Forget Me, Little Darling (I)".
- Missouri State University, Max Hunter Folk Song Collection: "Don't Forget Me Little Darling".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Jim Miller, 15 Tunes In The Public Domain Recorded By The Carter Family, Volume 1".
- Image: Goodwin & Company, Forget-Me-Not (Myosotis palustris), from the Flowers series for Old Judge Cigarettes, commercial color lithograph, 1890. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.