@richpowers I know so many of those. Mainly because they were covered by others in my era (50s 60s 70s). Except for Maggie May as that not the same song that Rod Stewart did. Rod Stewart's was another song same title he wrote. Check the spelling, I think it's Maggie Mae.
California Here I Come was a song I know done by the Shocking Blue(Venus was their big hit here) but I'm not sure whether a cover or another song same title.
Song titles are not copyrighted. There are many songs same title different song.
Another song you could have on there is by the same singer that wrote the best known version of Good Night Irene....Black Betty, covered by the band Ram Jam. Also still by the same singer(I think) covered by Led Zeppelin, When The Levy Breaks in a different arrangement.
How about Hot Diggity Dog Digitty Boom What You Do To Me, that has to be public domain now. Check to see if some Swing era is like Glen Miller?
A song just came to mind...Down By The Old Mill Stream. Don't know the original singer though.
@mark Black Betty is a tricky one, and I've run into this on some others. Black Betty is tricky because the earliest published lyrics are1933 - so even though the song goes back to the 20th century - what lyrics to use that guarantees as public domain? it's difficult to know how to handle it. I ran into a same situation with another song - it too was 19th century, but the earliest sheet music or publication of those lyrics didn't happen till like 1936 or something - I didn't realize it till after, I forget which song it was but it's still in the list, wasn't going to delete it after I was done, and I'm pretty sure it's clear anyway. But that's what I'm saying; How do I cover "Black Betty" when the lyrics hadn't been published until 1933?
'Down By The Old Mill Stream' I did cover and was pleased with the final. I think Glen Miller was the 40s (always have liked Glen Miller and Tommy Dorsey music), can't cover them but the ones from the 1920s are game. I've only done three or four instrumental covers, it's a lot different to do those, also simpler, I basically just upload an original 1920s recording and then start experimenting with prompts - they are all one-pass generations, because if I step back in, it breaks the whole composition from that point on. So I have to accept whatever direction it goes -- I might experiment with it thru 10 generations, but they are all just single passes from start to finish, so it's a lot simpler, but you don't have any control of its direction.
Hot Diggity Dog Digitty Boom and What You Do To Me, I look them up, (maybe I already did 'What You Do To Me'? - not sure, maybe just a similar title. I'll look them up.
@mark Speaking of instrumentals, I downloaded the original 'The Entertainer" for the Internet Archive, and upload it to Suno and after experimenting prompts and about 15 generations and well over 100 credits wasted I was about to give up when it finally outputed an alternate version of the original I liked. It a slowed down version that's still completely recognizable
https://suno.com/s/iyStekowiPq6399B
In case your curious, the prompting that outputted this rendition was:
Ambient, mysterious, spooky, mystical, echo's, outer space, wails, shouts, suspenseful sections, edm, wander, stoned, bongos, fx
How/where are you getting your compilation of public domain songs from to put into the computer and on to a playlist for future broadcast? Also just curious, do you keep the original recordings or are you changing them with AI as you say you give it to Suno? Why not keep it authentic true to the original recordings?
By the way here's a simple downloader easy to use and no need to install anything.
https://savemp3.net/x8ydv/youtube-video-to-mp3/
@mark I only download the instrumental songs to input into Suno (I've only done maybe 3 or 4 instrumentals), all the rest I download only the lyrics and usually confirm their accuracy with the original vintage sheet music, because the sources for lyrics online are not particularly reliable. I then use those lyrics to create an entirely different more modern musical composition of the original 1920s or whatever year song that usually sounds nothing like the original melodies. I did have a few original recordings in my playlist but opted to replace them with alternate covers so it blended better with the rest of my playlist of covers. As for how I pick what songs to do, I just browse around. Often I browse this site for ideas, but really I find them all over the place.
https://www.pdinfo.com/mobile/pd-song-list/pd-song-list-best-c.php
I'm not saying I won't include any original recordings, but for now my focus is re-creations of those classics
Lol.. another lose for ai assistance to maintain a simple song list.. Early I confirmed I had done all 180 of those songs - well, evidently there are two in that list I did not do...
Number 75. Indiana (Back Home Again in Indiana) — 1917 and number 100. Margie — 1920 are two songs that I never did, unless maybe ai corrected the title or something for it, but right now I have no idea what those two songs are or even heard of them before. I asked my trusty ChatGpt How did they end up in my master list?ChatGpt's explanation (in part):
- Possible reason it got added:
I may have suggested it as a classic standard.
It may have been grouped with songs like Chicago, California Here I Come, etc.
It fits your 1920s novelty/jazz-era theme.
Could have been inserted during “good additions for your style” discussions.
My honest assessment
These likely came from assistant-side list expansion, not from you explicitly saying “I recorded these.”
So if your rule is:
“Only songs I actually made / used / intentionally included belong on the master list”
…then these should be flagged for removal unless you later confirm them.
Give me a break.
While looking for public domain songs about radio I came across a 1930 song titled "A bowl of pop corn, the radio, and you", which I thought is interesting in itself, but I was having difficulty finding original sheet music for it (it's the only reliable source for the original lyrics), in fact the only reason I found a readable copy at all was because someone had sold one on eBay and the images were archived on Etsy, and that's how I got it since it doesn't seem to be readily available anywhere else, although I did see it listed in some box# in the Smithsonian archives! But I digress, anyway I had done some digging around and discover this song was written specifically as the theme song for a popular 1930s weekly radio program called "Jolly Time Pop Corn Revue” which aired immediately after "Amos & Andy" every Wednesday and featured musical numbers per request. The show was actually a marketing scheme by the American Pop Corn Company of Sioux City, Iowa, but it proved very popular featuring "General Jolly Time and his Pop Corn Colonels," (kernals) along with an orchestra leader Mart Grauenhorst and vocalist Clarence Hayes. Which the 1930 Broadcast magazine schedules showed aired every Wednesday at 8:45pm on numerous stations mostly in the west.
The first article which alerted me to this story was one that was actually titled the same as the original song:
A Bowl Of Pop Corn, The Radio, And You
https://www.thespectrum.com/story/life/2016/06/09/bowl-pop-corn-radio-and-you/85605400/
Excerpted:
I had forgotten that song, until recently as I was going through my music library and found a piece of sheet music I inherited from my parents. It seemed like a newly-discovered treasure, despite its dog-eared corners and torn cover with the back page barely intact until I carefully taped the pieces back together.
I can still hear Dad singing the chorus:
“Just a bowl of pop corn, a radio and you,
Just a chair by the fireplace that’s big enough for two,
Just a heart full of happiness, not a care can break through
With a bowl full of pop corn, the radio and you."
I envisioned Dad with his parents and siblings all gathered around the large radio console in their living room— eating popcorn and listening .... ..The popcorn song Dad would sing was published by the American Pop Corn Company of Sioux City, Iowa, in 1930, and composed by Paul Blakemore. The company sponsored a weekly program, the “Jolly Time Pop Corn Revue,” with the orchestra conducted by General Jolly Time and his Pop Corn Colonels. Maybe Dad and his family listened to that, too, and that is why he knew the song so well. ... ..
Well, I did do a cover of the song in Suno, but as usual used only the lyrics and disregarded whatever the original musical composition was. I made this one more like a love song or something, but since there is no known existing audio of neither the Jolly Time Pop Corn Revue nor the song itself, I would really like to try and re-create what the song might have originally sounded like - but I don't know how to read music for the melody and don't want to subscribe for a one-time use of one of the several services that can read and covert the original sheet music to a base midi file to use as a basis to start with.
Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting bit of history. Here's what I did with the song, but no, this is not supposed to represent what it originally sounded like by any stretch of the imagination, but it does use the original lyrics, I made it more like a surreal love song or something: https://suno.com/s/KEkjHKdar8uVtdze
Here's the front, back, and center pages of the original 1930 sheet music. The center page spread clearly shows the lyrics when you zoom in. So the programs theme song transcribed:
[Verse]
My sweetie is marvelous company
Wherever we happen to go,
When she's at a dance no one else has a chance,
And she's just as much fun at a show.
But the evenings when she says,
"Bring popcorn tonight, you're a fireside beau,"
They're the evenings that I call
The best of them all.
[Chorus]
And I sing while the fire burns low,
Just a bowl full of popcorn,
A radio and you,
Just a chair by the fireplace,
That's big enough for two.
Just a heart full of happiness,
Not a care can break through,
With a bowl full of jolly-time popcorn,
A radio and you.
Just a you...
I think it's a real interesting historical radio broadcasting story and should be one for the company too, but oddly the official American Pop Corn Company history video doesn't even mention the program ever even existed!