Music Blog

Shine On Harvest Moon

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

This week at Glyn Wilton’s Mixed Music Bag,
he’s asking us to write about a song in which
the title or a line mentions the current month. 
Here’s my featured January artist and his song.

© Country Living Magazine

For this week’s featured song, we’re taking a long trip back in time …. almost 125 years ago to the days of vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley. My choice for our final January song is “Shine On Harvest Moon”, written in the early 1900s by the married vaudeville team of Nora Hayes and Jack Norworth. It was one of a series of moon related Tin Pan Alley songs from that era which debuted in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1908. The song was greeted with great acclaim and became an extremely popular standard recorded by numerous artists. I have chosen Leon Redbone’s version of “Shine On Harvest Moon”.

Leon Redbone first emerged as a performer in Toronto during the 1970s; he was believed to be Canadian, though some sources have cited his birthplace as the Greek island of Cyprus. Others say he hailed from Philadelphia. A Canadian magazine profile in the ’80s reported that his birth name was Dickran Gobalian, though Redbone never confirmed or denied that. He was an intensely private man known for his deep baritone voice, his penchant for Panama hats and his Groucho Marx-like mustache. His musical style was a revival of pre-World War II ragtime, jazz, and blues sounds. Redbone first came to the attention of mainstream music fans when Bob Dylan saw him perform at the 1974 Mariposa Folk Festival in Ontario. Several months later, Dylan spoke about him in an interview with Rolling Stone. “Leon interests me”, Dylan said. “I’ve heard he’s anywhere from 25 to 60; I’ve been a foot and a half from him and I can’t tell, but you gotta see him.” 

Leon Redbone interests me, too.

This is “Shine On Harvest Moon” by Leon Redbone.

LYRICS

The night was mighty dark so you could hardly see
For the moon refused to shine
There was couples sitting ‘neath a willow tree
For love they pine
The little maid was kinda ‘fraid of darkness
So she said, “I think I’ll go”
Boy began to sigh, looked up at the sky
Told the moon his little tale of woe, oh

Shine on, shine on harvest moon up in the sky
I ain’t had no lovin’ since January, February, June, or July
Snow time ain’t no time to sit outdoors and spoon
Shine on, shine on harvest moon for me ‘n’ my gal

(Choral break)

I said the night was mighty dark so you could hardly see
For the moon refused to shine
There was couples sitting ‘neath a willow tree
For love they pine
The little maid was kinda ‘fraid of darkness
So she said, “I think I’ll go”
Boy began to sigh, looked up at the sky
Told the moon his little tale of woe, oh

Shine on, shine on harvest moon way up in the sky
I ain’t had no lovin’ since January, February, June, or July
Snow time ain’t no time to stay outdoors and spoon
So shine on, shine on harvest moon for me and my gal
For me and my gal

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Michael E. Renzi/Jack Norworth/Nora Bayes
Shine On Harvest Moon lyrics © Wb Music Corp., Easy Strider Music, Sesame Street Inc., Barter Music Inc.


While YouTubing “Shine On Harvest Moon”, I came across this priceless clip from Lauren & Hardy’s 1939 film Flying Deuces. This is Oliver Hardy singing and he and Stan Laurel dancing to “Shine On Harvest Moon”. Pure innocent joy; it doesn’t get much better than this.

Mixed Music Bag – January part 4

Big thanks to Glyn Wilton for hosting Mixed Music Bag each week. Please be sure to follow the link and check out Glyn’s site.

Thanks for joining me today and spinning some tunes.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2025

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy ~ The Sicilian Storyteller, Nancy (The Sicilian Storyteller), The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

38 thoughts on “Shine On Harvest Moon”

    1. It sure is an blast from the past, Barbara! Leon Redbone is a very cool dude and like any cool dude, he recorded a very cool version of this song.

      Laurel & Hardy were the best, IMO far superior to Abbott & Costello or The Three Stooges. They were quite a team.

      Thanks for your comments, Barbara. I hope you found your CD! 🙃

      Liked by 1 person

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  4. Nancy! This is a fabulous choice for the challenge. I love that his story is a mystery, that no one really knows from whence he comes, his age, nor name! This rendition of the song is just so good. His voice is as intriguing as his story.

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  9. Thanks for the intro to Leon Redbone who is all new to me. I also like your song pick.

    When reflecting on songs that have January in their lyrics, I came up completely empty, though a quick Internet search revealed there are various.

    Certain days of the week are easier: “I Don’t Like Mondays” (Boomtown Rats), “Tuesday’s Gone” (Lynyrd Skynyrd), “Friday On My Mind” (Easybeats), “Saturday Night’s Night’s Alright (For Fighting) (Elton John) and “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (Kris Kristofferson)!😀

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  12. Nancy, I love how you brought “Shine On Harvest Moon” to life! The connection to Leon Redbone’s version and its vaudeville roots is spot-on. Your touch with the fun details about Redbone’s background adds a nice layer of intrigue too!

    Much love,
    David

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