"YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 16

"YES, WE HAVE NO BANANAS"

CREATING A SONG SUCCESS.

■How does a modern song, become popular ? The. question is answered by Lawrence Wright, the British music publisher and agent, who writes on the "Yes, -We Have No Bananas" craze in "The Stage."

Every day people in the professionnewspaper men and everyone I meet— are.patting me on the back and congratulating me on creating. the booni (he says)'. I feel \'ery nattered to have it believed that I am clever enough to get the whole world singing and talking about this wonderfully successful song. But. they're wrong. "Yes, We Have no Bananas" simply slipped into a hit —rone day it was unheard of—the next day it just happened. When I received the song, the. title caught me at once. I played the piece over, but was not greatly impressed, so I just had .jjr filed away for future reference. ' The next I heard of it was when the musical director of s.s. Majestic called in the office. I asked him what was going in America. Ho said, "Bananas"—Why, I had to play it over, and over again during every session of my band on this voyage. llie passengers kept coming up and requesting 'More bananas.' " "If you could get a hit like that,"- he said, you'd make a fortune." ' Whilst we were talking the musical director of the Savoy Hotel called me on the 'phone paying "Have you got any bananas?" The answer came naturally. I replied, "Yes, we have no bananas." He said, "Joking apart, who publishes that song ? All the American people in the hotel are asking my bands to play it." I told him that I was the lucky publisher, and sent him a set of parts. _ Other musical directors heard about it and worried for parts. I then realised that there was' something extraordinary about the song, so I immediately put it in the press. Before I could get it printed, orders were pouring in for thousands of copies. Julian Wyhe telephoned up about itr-wanted it for the London Hippodrome at once; Paul Specht played it the same week at the Afhambra; Nora Bayes wanted it for the Palladium. .. Wo ordered 50,000 copies from-, our printers, but before they were off the press we had orders for more than that quantity, and "from that day to this we have had to instruct our printers to keep on printing all the time until we gave them orders to stop They havo had to put it on three more machines, so that four presses are constantly running an "Bananas." j