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A Perfect Day (song)

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Wikipedia article




'"A Perfect Day"' (first line: "When you come to the end of a perfect day") is a parlor song written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (18621946) in 1909 at the Mission Inn, Riverside, California.The place is indicated in a line inserted above the title on p. 3 of the high voice (soprano) edition published in 1938 by the Boston Music Company; this version is in the key of C. Jacobs-Bond wrote the lyrics after watching the sun set over Mount Rubidoux from her 4th-floor room. She came up with the tune three months later while touring the Mojave Desert.Reublein, [http://parlorsongs.com/bios/cjbond/cjbond.php "America's first great woman popular song composer"] site. For many years the Mission Inn played "A Perfect Day" on its carillon at the end of each day.[http://www.missioninnmuseum.com/collect_movers/mov00007.htm Mission Inn Museum Jacobs-Bond site.] The Mission Inn maintains a [http://www.missioninn.com/rooms-virtual-tour-suites.htm Carrie Jacobs-Bond Suite.]

Popularity



"A Perfect Day" was phenomenally successful when first published in 1910.When first published in 1910 by Carrie Jacobs-Bond & Son in Chicago, it came out in transcriptions for high voice (soprano, tenor) in the key of A-flat and low voice (contralto, bass) in the key of F. Later, a medium-voice (low soprano / high alto, baritone) transcription appeared, in the key of G. Publication information and the sheet music (including notes and lyrics) are part of the Lester S. Levy Collection of the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute, online at [https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/17752?show=full Johns Hopkins University site] (accessed 2009 September 03). Eight million copies of the sheet music and five million recordings sold within a year;[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/service/music/eadxmlmusic/eadpdfmusic/mu004006_x.pdf25 Library of Congress Jacobs-Bond site.] 25 million copies of the sheet music sold during Jacobs-Bond's lifetime, and many millions of recordings circulated as various artists performed the song on the fast-growing means of audio duplication. 'Cf.' [http://www.answers.com/topic/bond-carrie-jacobs Jacobs-Bond on Answers.com.] It was her most-requested number when Jacobs-Bond entertained the soldiers at U.S. Army camps in Europe during World War I. The popularity of "A Perfect Day" became so rampant that even Jacobs-Bond indicated in her autobiography that she had "tired" of hearing it. Along with "Just Awearyin' for You"For which Frank Lebby Stanton wrote the lyrics. and "I Love You Truly"both published in 1901 as part of the collection 'Seven Songs as Unpretentious as the Wild Rose'"A Perfect Day" augmented Jacobs-Bond's career as the first woman who made a living from composing.See the sources in the articles on "I Love You Truly" and Carrie Jacobs-Bond. Peggy DePuydt appropriated the song title for her biography of Jacobs-Bond'A Perfect Day: Carrie Jacobs-Bond, the Million-Dollar Woman' (New York: Golden Book Publisher, 2003), 334 pp., . The copyright expired in 1963 ([http://www.inetgiant.com/AdDetails/A-Perfect-Day-Violin-Cello-Obligato-Sheet-Music-Bond/3059799 Information on the Inetgiant site] . ).

According to "Backstairs At the White House" by former White House seamstress Lillian Rogers Parks, "A Perfect Day" was the favorite song of First Lady Florence Harding. She often had it played at White House concerts.

"A Perfect Day" was in the ship's songbook when made its fatal maiden voyage in 1912. "A Perfect Day" was the second item in the book.

"A Perfect Day" Is considered by many to be the unofficial theme song of the browser role-play game "Titanic Voyage".

Artists



"A Perfect Day" has been frequently recorded in English. Otto Leisner's Norwegian translation was popularized by Sissel Kyrkjeb.

In English

Besides the plaintive 1915 McKee Trio instrumental rendition linked in this article, "A Perfect Day" has been recorded by numerous artists from various backgrounds, including:

In the 1940 feature film 'Remember the Night', Sterling Holloway sang "A Perfect Day" accompanied by Barbara Stanwyck at the piano.. In the film Holloway calls the song "In the End of a Perfect Day"; "The End of a Perfect Day" and "At the End of a Perfect Day" are vernacular titles. In 1945, opera soprano Helen Traubel recorded an andante interpretation.. In the 1940s, Alfredo Antonini and his orchestra collaborated with Victoria Cordova and John Serry Sr. to record the song for Muzak.[https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=25529&recCount=25&recPointer=1&bibId=13672049 "Victoria Cordova and The Alfredo Antonini Orchestra perform 'A Perfect Day' as archived at the Library of Congress Online Catalog"] Norma Zimmer sang "A Perfect Day" on the 'Lawrence Welk Show' in 1962 in response to thousands of requests. In 1976, American tenor, Robert White, concluded his first album with RCA Records, 'When You and I Were Young, Maggie', with "A Perfect Day" accompanied by pianist Samuel Sanders.

In Norwegian ("En deilig dag")

Danish journalist Otto Leisner (19172008) translated "A Perfect Day" into Norwegian as "En deilig dag"';' this translation has been recorded by, among others, Sissel Kyrkjeb. ("A Perfect Day"), translation into Norwegian by Otto Leisner, sung by Sissel Kyrkjeb. See also the Norwegian article.

Character



"A Perfect Day" exemplifies the sentimentality popular in the late Victorian and post-Victorian era but has risen above such a sequestered view by nuances of studied reflection which, combined with the chord progressions of Jacobs-Bond's tune, have borne its appeal across time and cultural boundaries. "A Perfect Day" persists as an elegy using the analogy of the end of day as the end of life.Benjamin Robert Tubb displays the [http://pdmusic.org/bond/cjb10apd.txt complete lyrics of "A Perfect Day"] and a [http://www.pdmusic.org/bond/cjb10apd.mid midi file of the tune] on his "Music of Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946)" site.

In 1929, at Lake Arrowhead, California, with "A Perfect Day" playing on a phonograph, Jacobs-Bond's only child, Frederick Jacobs Smith, committed suicide.Rick Reublein, [http://parlorsongs.com/bios/cjbond/cjbond.php "America's First Great Woman Popular Song Composer" site.] The death of her only child affected Jacobs-Bond profoundly. She dedicated her 1940 book of poetry, 'The End of the Road', to him. p. iii.


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