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Dream On (An Indian Lullaby)

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"Dream On"
Sheet music cover, 1922
Song
Published1922
Composer(s)Victor Herbert
Lyricist(s)B.G. DeSylva

"Dream On (An Indian Lullaby)" is a popular song written by B.G. DeSylva with music composed by Victor Herbert. The song is a Cherokee mother's lullaby to her child. The lyrics as first written are:[1]

When the red Indian sun
Bids his goodbye;
Mother sees Cherokee's sleeptime's nigh,
When the fast fading day leaves a gray sky,
Twilight comes, then she hums this lullaby;

Dream on, mother is holding you, Ah yah*, ah yah;
Dream on, night is enfolding you, Ah yah, ah yah;
Some fair silver canoe
Carries you through into Dreamland,
Over a blue lagoon
Where the crickets croon, Ah yah, ah yah.
Dream on, mother is holding you, Ah yah, ah yah;
Dream on, night is enfolding you, Ah yah, ah yah;
New moon slender and frail
Quickly will pale and be gone,
And you'll come back to me then in the rose of dawn.

  • Indian for "bye-lo" pronounced Hey-ah.

The first commercial recording of "Dream On" was by Mario Chamlee (Brunswick 10158) in 1925.

References

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  1. ^ DeSylva, "Dream On" (sheet music).

Bibliography

[edit]
  • DeSylva, B.G. (w.); Herbert, Victor (m.). "Dream On" (An Indian Lullaby), (Sheet music). New York: Harms (1922).
  • Kaye, Joseph. Victor Herbert: The Biography of America's Greatest Composer of Romantic Music. Wrangell-Rokassowsky Press (2007).