Annotation:After the Ball is Over

The melody was played by Arizona fiddler Kenner C. Kartchner, who said "I remember this back to 1892. Guess it is much older." In fact, the song was not at all older, having been copyrighted in November, 1892, the composition of Poughkeepsie, New York, born composer, banjo player and lyricist Charles K. Harris (popularized on the variety stage by J. Aldrich Libby). Music researcher James J. Fuld (The Book of World Famous Music, 1971) says that numerous parodies were written to this sentimental favorite, reducing it to nonsense. Samuel Bayard collected the tune from Pennsylvania fiddler McCullough in 1959. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 637B, pg. 561.