Music Blog

By The Light Of The Silvery 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 artist for June and her song.

© Parlor Songs

Step into my time machine, my friends; we are going back to the turn of the century and I don’t mean 2000. My featured song this week for Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag was released in 1909 – that’s 116 years ago! “By The Light of the Silvery Moon” is a beloved old love song written by Gus Edwards and Edward Madden. The song was first performed on stage as part of the Ziegfeld Follies and was one of a series of moon-related songs of the Tin Pan Alley era.

Nora Bayes, circa 1908
© Alchetron.com

Nora Bayes was an American singer and vaudeville performer who was popular internationally between the 1900s and 1920s. In late 1900, Bayes joined a touring company, performing in St. Louis and California. Deciding to advance her career, Nora moved to New York City where she grew in popularity as a comedic actress and singer. In 1902, she performed at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn which was her first big success.

Over the next few years, Bayes performed in increasingly prestigious theaters in New York, toured the country, and, between 1904 and 1907, made several tours of Europe. She first performed in London in December 1905, and was an immediate success. After returning to the United States,  she was approached by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld to star in a new theatre show, The Follies of 1907. The show was soon retitled The Ziegfeld Follies.

In 1907, Nora Bayes joined the Ziegfeld Follies singing her latest hit, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon.” When newcomer Sophie Tucker proved a hit on the pre-Broadway tour, a jealous Bayes demanded Tucker be dismissed. Bayes was a star, commanding a much higher salary than the other performers, and sometimes challenging the authority of theatre managers and promoters. She walked out of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909 after a disagreement with Ziegfeld over Sophie Tucker; Ziegfeld then sued Bayes for breach of contract, which prevented her from performing in other theaters for several months. Oh, the drama!

Fast-forward to 1953; a movie called “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” was released starring Doris Day and Gordon MacRae. It’s a typical feel-good film from that period about a small-town girl whose beau returns home from WWI. There were a lot of songs in the movie but none more popular than “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”.

Oh, before I forget …. for those of you too young to know, the word “spoon” in this song is not an eating utensil. “Spooning” refers to two people kissing and cuddling: “I saw them spooning on the beach“.  It could also suggest two people who lie close together, front-to-back with knees bent, so as to fit together like spoons. People don’t say “spooning’ anymore; it’s called “canoodling”, “making out” or just “snuggling”.

From “The Ziegfeld Follies of 1909“, this is “By The Light Of The Silvery Moon” by Nora Bayes.


LYRICS

Place, park (scene, dark)
Silvery moon is shining through the trees
(Cast, two) me, you
Summer kisses floating on the breeze
Act one (be done)
Dialog, where would ya like to spoon?
(My cue) with you
Underneath the silvery moon

By the light of the silvery moon
I want to spoon
To my honey, I’ll croon love’s tune
Honeymoon, keep a-shinin’ in June
Your silvery beams will bring love’s dreams
We’ll be cuddlin’ soon
By the silvery moon

By the light (not the dark but the light)
Of the silvery moon (not the sun but the moon)
La la da la la di la la
To my honey, I’ll croon love’s tune
Honeymoon (honeymoon, honeymoon)
Keep a-shinin’ in June
Your silvery beams will bring love’s dreams
We’ll be cuddlin’ soon (soon)
By the silvery moon
The silvery moon

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Michael E. Renzi/Gus Edwards/Edward Madden
By the Light of the Silvery Moon lyrics © Wb Music Corp., Easy Strider Music, Sesame Street Inc.

And this is what it sounded like when Doris Day sang it in 1953.

Mixed Music Bag 2025 – What Shelby will be

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’s Notes 🖊️🎶, The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk, and The Rhythm Section, et. al., and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

38 thoughts on “By The Light Of The Silvery Moon”

  5. Great song! A childhood friend had an upright player piano in their den, and we used to hook it up and sing this at the top of our fourth-grade lungs. This song, and “My Pal Joey.” 🐈😅🥰

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  9. Oh that silvery moon, Nancy, … I like the thought of cuddling under the silvery moon, … great background details, … and now I’m playing Doris, …(I think I’m winning 😉) … I don’t know what it is about Doris Day, her voice, … has a certain frisson to it, …💫🎶💫

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    1. Doris Day always gives off that image of a happy, excited-about-life attitude woman; even when she’s pissed off, she sounds so chipper and wholesome. I’ve no idea what her personal life was like but the DD we know and love was the epitome of all-American sweetness and light with a dash of determination! Thanks for a great comment, Penn. I’m glad you enjoyed my post.

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      1. I can’t believe she’s anything but that, Nancy, … that character/charm can’t be forced I think, … but whatever the truth, she’s a favourite, …(I think we’ve still got the Calamity Jane, ..Musical..she had a great voice loved ‘Black Hills of Dakota,’ …erm, …I singing it now, …🎶. you can’t hear me, can you? 🎶). 😉

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        1. There are so many things to love about Doris Day! She was an absolutely adorable tomboy in one movie and a sweet ingenue in another. She could play coy & sexy or all hot & bothered sexy but she never lost her sweetness …. even when she lost her cool she did it in the sweetest, most charming way. There was only one Doris Day! Thanks, Penn

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