Kissing Is A Crime: A Song History

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"Kissing Is A Crime" is a comic courting song: the singer, set on marrying a girl who has never been kissed, kisses her, and though she scolds him for it, the kissing carries on.[1] The Traditional Ballad Index gives its author as unknown, files it as Roud 11327, and points to a text with tune printed under the shorter title "Kissing" in Ray B. Browne's The Alabama Folk Lyric.[1] Browne's book appeared in 1979, though the Index notes that its songs were gathered in 1952 and 1953.[2] None of the sources consulted here traces the song further back than the Carter Family's record.[1][3]

Painting of a young man leaning in to kiss a young woman while her companion looks away

Jean Honoré Fragonard, The Stolen Kiss, oil on canvas, about 1760. A stolen kiss, shown for the song's comic courting; it has no connection to the song.

The Carter Family recorded it in New York on May 6, 1935, for the American Record Corporation, and the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists issues of the take on the company's Conqueror and Melotone labels, without naming a songwriter.[3] A copy on Perfect, another ARC label, catalog number 6-05-53, digitized by George Blood, L.P. for the Internet Archive's 78 rpm collection, carries matrix number 17475, describes the performance as singing with guitar and autoharp, and has the Carters' "Lulu Walls" on the other side.[4] The Archive dates that issue to May 1936, and its label names no songwriter.[4] The Ballad Index lists the recording on the Romeo label.[1]

Drawing on years of studying Carter Family memorabilia and working through their recordings, Elwood Donnelly chose 35 of their songs for Such Singing You Will Hear; this one is among them, set for mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, with guidance for backup and singing.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Kissing Is A Crime"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Kissing Is a Crime".
  2. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Bibliography" (entry Browne-AlabamaFolkLyric).
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "ARC matrix 17475. Kissing is a crime / Carter Family".
  4. Internet Archive: "Kissing Is a Crime," Carter Family (Perfect 6-05-53).
  5. Elwood Donnelly: "Such Singing You Will Hear: 35 Songs Of The Carter Family".
  6. Image: Jean Honoré Fragonard, The Stolen Kiss, oil on canvas, about 1760. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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