This tearjerker was the first million selling song, 1892.
words and music by Charles K. Harris
arranged by Joseph Clauder
A very sentimental ballad. This is grand emotion. The man and woman both suffered with broken hearts their whole lives; after the ball. In those days a lot of people enjoyed being shocked, feeling sad, even crying over a song. Charles Harris was so successful that he became a music publisher and moved from Milwaukee to New York City. There’s a YouTube video of him singing this song.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- A little maiden climbed an old man’s knee
Begged for a story, “Do Uncle please.”
Why are you single, why live alone?
Have you no babies, have you no home?
“I had a sweetheart, years, years ago
Where she is now pet, you will soon know
List to the story, I’ll tell it all
I believed her faithless after the ball”
Refrain
After the ball is over, after the break of morn
After the dancers’ leaving, after the stars are gone
Many a heart is aching, if you could read them all
Many the hopes that have vanished after the ball
- Bright lights were flashing in the grand ballroom
Softly the music, playing sweet tunes
There came my sweetheart, my love, my own
“I wish some water, leave me alone”
When I returned, dear, there stood a man
Kissing my sweetheart as lovers can
Down fell the glass, pet, broken, that’s all
Just as my heart was after the ball - Long years have passed, child, I’ve never wed
True to my lost love, though she is dead
She tried to tell me, tried to explain
I would not listen, pleadings were vain
One day a letter came from that man
He was her brother, the letter ran
That’s why I’m lonely, no home at all
I broke her heart, pet, after the ball
Sung here by Fred Feild: