"Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" is a 1905 popular song with music written by Harry Von Tilzer and lyrics by Andrew B. Sterling.[1][2][3]
"Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" | |
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![]() 1905 sheet music cover with insert photos of songwriter Harry Von Tilzer and of singer Geo. R. Brown. | |
Song | |
Released | 1905 (1905) |
Genre | Pop standard |
Composer(s) | Harry Von Tilzer |
Lyricist(s) | Andrew B. Sterling |
Audio sample | |
Sung by Harry Tally in 1905. (Victor 4551)
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"Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" has been recorded many times and is now considered a pop standard. The first recorded versions were by Byron G. Harlan and Harry Tally.[4]
Bing Crosby and Mary Martin sang it in the 1941 film Birth of the Blues and also recorded it for Decca Records on March 13, 1942.[5] Harry James recorded a version in 1941 on Columbia 36466.
In a long-standing tradition, floor traders at the New York Stock Exchange sing this song on the last trading day of every year and on Christmas Eve.[6] The song has been the stock exchange anthem at least back as far as 1934.[7][8]
It is also a popular song in barbershop music.
It appeared as a country music hit as performed by the Golden Memory Boys in the summer of 1940.
In the months before his death in 1959, Buddy Holly made a recording of "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" and other songs now called the "Apartment Tapes", which he was making as notes for himself while chilling in his living room at his home in New York City. Nowadays[when?] this cover of "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" by Buddy Holly is at the top of searches on YouTube for this song title[original research?]. His original recording by himself on guitar can be found. Also the released version which has been remixed with added 'backup singers' and instruments is easy to find and is a longer version.
A sample of the song, sung a capella by Tom Bromley, an elderly First World War veteran, appears on the Roger Waters 1992 album Amused to Death at the end of the track "What God Wants (Part III)". The clip is from BBC television's 1991 Everyman documentary, "A Game of Ghosts".[9]
The song has been featured in many films and found ideal for the purpose of evoking a period flavor.
Floor traders, as they do every year on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, gathered for a moment at the New York Stock Exchange to sing "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie." The song is about waiting for the rain to end, and the Big Board tradition has roots going back to the Great Depression.
The Stock Exchange anthem, by common consent, has been for many years "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie." In recent years "The Wearing of the Green" has ...
Floor favorites as "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" or "The Wearing of the Green."
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