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Sheet Music of the Week: Swimsuit Edition

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"They had to swim back to the shore," by James V. Monaco. New York: Broadway Music Corp., 1914.

A major national magazine has just published their highly anticipated annual swimsuit edition.  The art blog Modern Art Notes recently put out a call to museums for their first annual swimsuit postIn the Muse offers its own modest suggestions for beach apparel, in the fashion that was all the rage of 1914.  Who knows what the amorous couple in “They Had to Swim Back to the Shore” are up to when into the ocean “down they would go/way down below.” The songwriting team of James Monaco and Joe McCarthy are best known for “You Made Me Love You,” which like this week’s feature can be found in the Historic Sheet Music, 1800-1922 collection in the Performing Arts Encyclopedia.  “You Made Me Love You”  was popularized by singers like Al Jolson and Judy Garland, and has also been performed by Olivia Newton-John, but readers of a certain age may remember that a version of the song  was performed on Sesame Street by Cookie Monster as he writes a love letter to his favorite cookie. The lyrics were adapted to the situation:

“Give me, give me, what me cry for!

You know you’ve got the kind of flavor that me die for!”

Alas, poor Cookie devours his beloved before he can send the letter. His solution to this bittersweet dilemma? He eats the letter so his favorite cookie can read it in his tummy. What this says about the relationship between love and appetite I can only begin to surmise.

But back to our featured title. In The Muse is aware that beach season is some months away, but we nevertheless implore adventurous couples to exercise caution at the beach.

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