By the Light of the Silvery Moon

(By the Light of the Silvery Moon,
cover of the sheet music, 1909)

Today’s verse is a popular ditty from a century ago. It was revived in 1953 as the title song of a Doris Day movie.

Click on the YouTube site of this Oldie but Goodie and you’ll hear, in the charming patter, what the language of love used to be. “To spoon” and "cuddling" refer to the flirtations and expressions of affection between young lovers. Other such old-fashioned terms include “canoodling” and “billing and cooing.” More recently, in contrast to the prevailing language of the Free Love days of the hippy trippy Sixties, Merle Haggard sang of an Oklahoma town “where even squares can have a ball,” where “we don’t make a party out of lovin’ / but we like holdin’ hands and pitchin’ woo.”



BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON

By the light of the silvery moon,
I want to spoon,
To my honey I'll croon
Love's tune.
Honey moon, keep a-shinin' in June.
Your silv'ry beams will bring love's dreams.
We'll be cuddlin' soon,
By the silvery moon.

Place: Park.
Scene: Dark.
Silv'ry moon is shining through the trees.
Cast: Two,
Me, you.
Sound of kisses floating on the breeze.
Act One: Begun.
Dialogue: "Where would you like to spoon?"
My cue: With you,
Underneath the silv'ry moon.

By the light of the silvery moon,
I want to spoon,
To my honey I'll croon
Love's tune.
Honey moon, keep a-shinin' in June.
Your silv'ry beams will bring love's dreams.
We'll be cuddlin' soon,
By the silvery moon.

Act: Two.
Scene: New.
Roses blooming all around the place.
Cast: Three.
You, me,
Preacher with a solemn looking face.
Choir sings, bell rings.
Preacher: "You are wed forever more."
Act Two: All through.
Ev'ry night the same encore.

By the light (not the dark but the light)
Of the silvery moon (not the sun but the moon),
I wanna to spoon (not croon, but spoon),
To my honey I'll croon love's tune.
Honey moon (honey moon, honey moon)
Keep a-shinin' in June.
Your silv'ry beams will bring love's dreams.
We'll be cuddlin' soon,
By the silvery moon (the silv'ry moon).

~ Ed Madden (1878-1962), American lyricist and, and Gus Edwards (1875-1949), American composer and vaudevillian