Paul Dresser - My Gal Sal (1928)

Performed by: Unknown

Composer: Paul Dresser

Full Song Title:My Gal Sal

Recorded in: 1928

Paul Dresser (born Johann Paul Dreiser, Jr.; April 22, 1857 – January 30, 1906) was an American singer, songwriter, and comedic actor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to songwriting Dresser performed in traveling minstrel and medicine-wagon shows and as a vaudeville entertainer. Dresser sold his songs through sheet music publishers, especially the firms in New York City's Tin Pan Alley, and became a partner in the music publishing business.

Dresser composed and published more than 150 songs. His biggest hit, "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (1897), became the second best-selling song, in terms of sheet music, during the nineteenth century. Following the success of "Wabash", many newspapers compared Dresser to popular music composer Stephen Foster. "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" became the official state song of Indiana in 1913. The Paul Dresser Birthplace in Terre Haute is designated as a state shrine and memorial. Dresser was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Paul Dresser’s “My Gal Sal” was written as a fond reflection on one of the great loves in that songwriter’s life, his multiple-year affair with an Evansville madam called Sal Davis, real name, as research has recently shown: Annie Swanner. We know about her mainly through scattered writings left by Dresser’s now-more-famous younger brother, Theodore Dreiser. She helped keep the Dreiser family alive at one point in the 1870s, when they were at their poorest. Dresser is said to have broken her heart by running off with one of her “girls,” but a quarter-century later, he hadn’t forgotten her, and because of him the whole world knows her name. Or at least her nickname.

Probably the greatest version of this song, musically speaking, in that here the song’s jazz possibilities are explored most fully. Partly that has to do with the sheer excellence of the playing. But I can also say, as a person with a claim to having listened to the most versions of “My Gal Sal” the most times of anyone in America, that this is the one I hum and hear.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Best wishes,
Stu
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Please Note: I do not claim copyright or ownership of the song played in this video. All copyrighted content remains property of their respective owners.

[steveheywood]

Fascinating view of peoples lives and interactions from 90 years ago.