QRS 3163 In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree Player Piano Word Roll Wizard Oz

Description

In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree is a popular song dating from 1905. It was written by Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne (music). Popular recordings in 1905 were by Henry Burr; Albert Campbell; Haydn Quartet; and by Arthur Pryor's Band. Other recordings were by Duke Ellington (Brunswick 6646, recorded August 15, 1933), Louis Armstrong and The Mills Brothers (Decca 1495, recorded June 29, 1937) and Alma Cogan (1962). Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album On the Sentimental Side (1962).
The meter of its chorus is in the form of a Limerick.1905 sheet music cover
It can safely be characterized as a highly sentimental tune. Although the verses (seldom heard nowadays) provide further explanation, it is clear that the writer is singing about a lost love:
In the shade of the old apple tree,
Where the love in your eyes I could see,
Where the voice that I heard,
Like the song of a bird,
Seemed to whisper sweet music to me,
I could hear the dull buzz of the bee
In the blossoms as you said to me,
"With a heart that is true,
"I'll be waiting for you,
In the shade of the old apple tree."
In the movie The Wizard of Oz, in the scene involving the talking apple trees who become angry with Dorothy for picking apples off them, the strains of this song are heard in the instrumental underscore.
Similarly, in Warner Bros. cartoons, for example, the tune was invoked in underscore sometimes, when trees were appearing on the screen.In the movie Blondie in Society (1941), a scene involves Blondie (Penny Singleton) singing the song to their Great Dane showdog.
You can hear this song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYX4AauR0iA