In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree
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In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree is the name of a popular song dating from 1905. It was written by Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne. The meter of its chorus is in the form of a Limerick.
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
- When the voice that I heard
- Like the song of the 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."
[edit] Trivia
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.
[edit] Parody
A song like this, dripping with sentiment even by early-1900s standards, lent itself to parodies. Billy Murray recorded one. The verse describes him passing by the house of Maggie Jones, a maiden "homelier than me", who asks him to fetch some apples on the promise of giving him one of the pies she plans to bake. That verse continues into the chorus:
- So I climbed up the old apple tree
- For a pie was a real thing to me
- She stood down below
- With her apron spread "so"
- To catch all the apples, you see
- It looked like a picnic for me
- But just then the limb broke; holy gee!
- And I broke seven bones
- And half-killed Maggie Jones
- In the shade of the old apple tree
