Four popular songs about moonlight are presented, including their origins and as sing-a-longs. In 1909, songwriter
Edward Madden worked as an undercover government agent in New York's rough-and-tumble Tenderloin District, which is in stark contrast to his lyrics for "By the Light of the Silvery Moon", the lyrics which were set to music by
Gus Edwards. Three years later, Madden would pen the lyrics to what is now the popular barbershop standard "Moonlight Bay". Southerner
James Alan Bland wrote many songs depicting the simple life of the south, including "In the Evening By the Moonlight". And an already popular 1908 penned song was made even more famous and popular with the movie of the same name,
Shine on Harvest Moon (1944), the title song which was sung by
Ann Sheridan and
Dennis Morgan portraying the song's writers,
Nora Bayes and
Jack Norworth.
—Huggo