[78-L] "Shine", "St. Louis Blues" and copyright legislation

[David Lennick]

I think any copyright expert would tell you that "Shine" is copyrighted and 
"That's Why They Call Me Shine" is not.

According to WackyPackia:


"Shine" (originally titled "That's Why They Call Me Shine") is a jazz song with 
lyrics by Cecil Mack and Tin Pan Alley songwriter Lew Brown and music by Ford 
Dabney. It was published in 1910 by Gotham-Attucks and used by Ada Walker in 
His Honor the Barber, an African-American road show.

It was later recorded by artists such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and 
Frankie Laine, usually without the explanatory introduction. It also featured 
as one of the songs sung by Sam (Dooley Wilson) and the band at Rick's Cafe in 
the movie Casablanca. According to Perry Bradford, himself a songster and 
publisher, the song was written about an actual man named Shine who was with 
George Walker when they were badly beaten during the New York City race riot of 
1900.[1]

Ry Cooder recorded the song complete with introduction in 1978.

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I don't know what the legal status is of songs that have had lyrics added many 
years after the publication of the original.."Melody of Love" dates from about 
1904 but had lyrics added by Tom Glazer in the fifties, but as an instrumental 
it should be PD. No comment on the sappy poetry on Wayne King's version of it.

dl