Dapper Dan

Performer: Frank Crumit

Song writer: Albert Von Tilzer
Columbia, 1921
MP3 1,362K

 

I love this song. I'm sure there's a musical term for songs that stagger up and down the scale by half notes. I suspect it works out to the Latin word for "real sonofabitch to sing a capella."

Never mind. I sing this one a lot. I try to remember all Dan's ladies and their last known places of residence. And I sing badly. And I drive a convertible. HAHAHAHAHA! Take that, rude tailgating traffic person!

Albert Von Tilzer also wrote "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Oh, By Jingo" (whence comes the expression "jingoism"). His older brother Harry formed a music publishing company with Albert, and wrote "Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage", "Wait 'Til The Sun Shines Nellie" and "I Want A Girl Just Like The Girl Who Married Dear Old Dad" (among others).

  The Von Tilzer brothers were born in Indianapolis under the name Gummbinsky, later shortened to Gumm, later changed to Von Tilzer. Which is ironic, because the Gumm sisters of Minnesota (well, one of them, anyway) changed her name from Gumm to Garland and became Judy Garland.

Wait...is that irony, or just trivia?

Dapper Dan was a Pullman porter man
On a train that ran through Dixie.
Everyone knew Dapper Dan.
Knew him for a ladies' man.
Never cared to settle down,
Had a girl in every town.
On the train the whole day long,
You'll hear him sing this song:

If I lose my gal in Tennessee, that won't worry me,
'Cause I got a honey lamb, waiting for me down in Alabam'.
And if I lose my gal in Alabam', I won't feel blue,
'Cause I got one in Georgia, that I can march right to.
And if I loose my gal in Georgia, guess that I won't pine,
'Cause I got another mama waiting, down in sunny Caroline.
Now I ain't handsome and I ain't sweet
But I got the brand of lovin' that can't be beat.
I'm the ladies' man from dear old Dixieland.

Dapper Dan was a very handy man
On a train that ran through Dixie.
Made the beds and everything
All you had to do was ring.
If the train stopped anywhere,
There'd be some gal waiting there.
He'd say, "this is one of mine,
And there's others down the line."

If I lose my gal in Baltimore,
That won't make me sore,
'Cause I got one who can fill the bill
Waiting for me down in Louisville.
And if I lose my gal in Louisville,
I'll never fret,
'Cause I got one in Mobile
That I can go and get.
And if I lose my gal in Mobile,
Funny as it seems,
There's another loving sweetie waiting,
Down in sunny New Orleans.
Now, I won't let no gal run my life,
'Cause if I lose them all, still I got my wife.
I'm the ladies' man from dear old Dixieland.

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