Thomas S. Allen

For the Civil War officer and politician, see Thomas Allen (Wisconsin politician).

Cover of sheet music published in 1913.

Thomas S. Allen (1876–1919), an early figure in Tin Pan Alley, was an American vaudeville composer, manager, and violinist. He was born in Natick, Massachusetts, and died in Boston.

Popular songs

In 1902, his popular fusion of schottische and ragtime, "Any Rags", became a major hit. Its companion song is "Scissors to Grind".

Modern impact

• "Whip and Spur" (1902) is performed at circuses and rodeos.
• "Low Bridge, Everybody Down", also known as "Fifteen Years on the Erie Canal" or "Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal" (1913) is a well-known song, often referred to as a folk song. Included in the Seeger Sessions, folk album by Bruce Springsteen
• T. S. Eliot spliced lines together from two songs for The Waste Land.

List of Works

• Behind the Hounds (1900)
• The Horse Marines (1901)
• The High Roller (1902)
• Soap Bubbles (1904)
• The Naval Parade (1910)
• On the Curb (1910)
• The Suburbanite (1910)
• U.S.S. Rhode Island (1914)
• The Periscope (1915)

External links

• List of Works
• Erie Canal Song by Thomas S. Allen
• Thomas S. Allen at the Benvenuti Music Library

The list of Allen's works omits his 1914 composition "I Wonder What Will William Tell", Music by "X, with apologies to G. Rossini", Daly Music Publishing, Boston Mass.