Charles Neil Daniels (April 12, 1878 to January 21, 1943)
Compositions
1898 Margery Only a Bugle Boy [1,6] My Rag-Time Lady [6,7] 1899 Without Thee [w/Earl Fitzhugh] [1] The Poster Girl - March You Tell Me Your Dream, I'll Tell You     Mine [6,7] You're Drifting Further From Me, Day By     Day [w/Scott Frederick] 1901 My Dream Lady [1] My Sugar Baby [6] Actions Speak Louder than Words [6,7] When the Cold, Cold Wind Begins to      Blow [6] Hiawatha - A Summer Idyl [1] (1901/1902) 1902 'Neath Southern Skies [1] Dolores - Cubanola [1] The Arrival of the Gecks [1] The White Slave [2] 1903 Hiawatha - His Song to Minnehaha [1,8] Me Heart Breaker "Rags" [w/Eddie Dustin] The Jolly General Show Girl [1] 1904 My Cherokee [1] [w/Eugene Parker] Poppies - A Japanese Romance [1] A Deed of the Pen [1] One Little Soldier Man [1] [w/Edward     Madden] Say You Forgive [2,5] Moonlight - A Serenade [1] 1905 Moonlight - Song [1,8] Niccolini [1,8] Cleopatra Finnegan [1] Silverheels [1] Silverheels - Song [1,8] Sombrero - Mexican Serenade [1] Autumn: The Woods Are Ablaze [1] Cherry - Intermezzo [3] 1906 Cherry - Song [3,9] Heartsease [1] 1907 Louisiana [3] Senorita [3] Dark Eyes - A Mexican Dance [1] Clematis - A Garden Dance [3] Musette [1] Musette - Song [1,8] Strong-Heart [1,8] Innocence - Valse Lente [1] Indian Summer [1] After Vespers [1] 1908 Sleepy Chile: Lullaby [1] 1909 Classic Rag [1] Mary - March [1] Truly Southern - Rag Pearls: Novelette [1] Chung Lo: A Chinese Monkey Doodle [1] Under the Tents Hearts of Gold [3] Honka-Tonk Rag [3,10] Love's Serenade [1] 1910 Fifty Years Ago - Dear Old Chum [3,10] By the Moss Covered Well, Dear     Estelle [3,10] Cotton Time Cotton Time - Song [10] The Lady Bug's Review [1] Woodland Dove (My Gypsy Love) On Mobile Bay [10] Cupid's Patrol: March [1] Sayonara: Intermezzo [1] Mondschien: Seranade [1] When the Moon Swings Low [w/John Page] 1911 In Maple Sugar Time [10] Fare Thee Well, Lizzie Lee [10] Texas [10] Borneo Rag - Oriental Pastime [10] Sugar Plum [3] Abide With Me [w/Charles F. Shermer] The Island of Roses and Love [1,10] I Think of Home and Mother When it's     Christmas Time [10] Have You a Little Fairy in Your Home? [9]     [w/G.H.E. Hawkins] The Only Pal I Ever Had Came From Frisco     Town [10] Love is a Weaver of Dreams [1,10]     [w/L. Lockwood Moore] I Never Thought I'd Miss A Girl Like     You [1,10] Bye and Bye [1] Virginia Love [10] The Heart That Sighs Too Late [1] Enchanted Nights [1] When My Dark Diana Dreams of Me [10] 1912 Echoes of Seville [1] It's Such a Little Pansy [3,10] That Banjo Rag [1,10] Where the Moonbeams Gleam [10] A Real, Live, Regular Town [10] Gee, I Love A Beautiful Girl [10] Kill That Bear [10] On Long Island Sound [10] That Rag [1,10] I'll Come Back to You, My Honolulu     Lou [10] Beedle-Um-Bo - I Love You in Zulu [10] 1913 The Beautiful Dawn of Love [1,10] In Apple Blossom Time {Down on the      Farm) [10] It's a Rocky Road to Dublin (But I'm Coming      Back to You) [w/George J. Moriarty] 1914 My Little Baby Rose [1] [w/Mannie      Lowenstein] Pretty Wild Thing [1] At the Panama-Pacific Fair [5] Peter Pan [5] 1915 In Monterey [1,11] Hula Lou [1,11] The Lord and Master of Mine [w/Charles R.      McCarron] Nadja [1] Thelma [1] 1916 My Sweet Moana [1] My Pearl of Honolulu [5] [w/Charles B.      Brown] In the Purple Twilight 1917 Underneath the Tennessee Moon [11] Hawaiian Dreams [5,12] The Smiles and Tears of Killarney [1] 1918 Arabian Dreams [5,12] Mickey [1,11] Yearning [1] [5]	1918 (Cont) Aloha Soldier Boy [5,13] Roses of Lorraine [5,13] 1919 Yankee Doodle in Berlin [11] When You Come Back to Me [1,11] Dreamy Moon [5,13] When it's Over, Over There Molly Darlin' [1]      [w/Ben Purrington] Peggy [1,11] Dancing with the Girl You Love [1] Some Night [1,14] Hindu Rose - The Oriental Vamp [1,14] Rose of Romany [1] [w/Louis Weslyn] Rose of My Heart [1,15] [w/A. Bollaert] Sunshine Mary [1,11,13] My Buddy [1,16] 1921 Sicily: Waltz [1,11,15] Love Moon [1] Mello Cello [1,11] 1922 Without You [1,17,18] Just Plain Folks [1,17,18] Babylon: A Romantic Fox Trot [1,11] 1923 Alexandria [1,18] Trip Along [1,18] Betty - A Dancing Song [1,19] [w/Barton      Mac] Half Past Ten: Chinese Waltz [1,19] 1924 On the Way to Monterey [1] Nancy [1,18] 1925 Moonlight and Roses [1,18] [w/Edwin H.      Lemare] Beside a Silv'ry Stream [1,18] I'm In Love with You [1] She's Funny That Way [1,20] Moon Deer [1,20,21] 1926 Song of the Wanderer [1] Sandman Lullaby [w/Billy Baskette &      Coleman Goetz] Don't Sing Aloha When I Go [1,13,18] 1927 Chlo-E (Song of the Swamp) [1,22] An Old Guitar and An Old Refrain [1,18,22] Rose of Monterey [1,16] Persian Rug [1,22] Up in the Clouds [1,18] God's Greatest Gift [1] [w/Merton H. Bories      & Paul Cobell] 1928 Happy - My Baby Just Said Yes [w/Larry      Yoell] Evenin' [1,20] Ready for the River [1,22] 1929 Song of Siberia [1,23] Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane [1,23] Chinky, Chinee Boogie Man [20,24] Feelin' the Way I Do [20,24] [w/Charles     Cooke] Singin' River [25] Varsity Rhythm [1] One Moment More with You [1,20,21] 1930 Sally, I'm Lovin' You, Sally [1,24] Blue Mountain Shack [26] [as Charlie Hill      w/John Forrest] When It's Harvest Time (Sweet Angeline) [1]      [w/Charley Kisco] My Dream of Love [1] [w/Mabel Musante] Kiss Me to Sleep [1] [w/Leverett Edwards] 1931 I'm Gonna Get You [4,27] Hills of Idaho [4,6,27] Sweet and Lovely [4,27] Within This Heart of Mine [4] [w/Milton      Brockman and Jimmie Lederer] A Pillow Wet with Tears [1,26] Put Your Little Arms Around Me [4,27] 1932 Give Her a Kiss for Me [1,26] It Might Have Been You [1,26] Goodnight My Love [4,27] From AM to PM, I Love You All the      Time [1,14,27] Thank You for the Evening [1,29] 1933 Dancing in Blue [1,25,27,29] Here You Come with Love [1,27] Lady Lou [1,27] Swanee Woman [25] Lou-Anna [1,14,27] Oo-oo-ooh! Honey! What You Do to Me      [1,27,30] 1934 Give Me Your Answer Tonight [1,25] Call of the Rockies [1,27] A Pretty Girl, A Lovely Evening [1,14,27] Wild Honey [1,27,28] Swanee River Dream Man [1,27,30] 1935 Here Comes Your Pappy With the Wrong     Kind of Load [4,27,28] In the Merry Month of May [1,27]      [w/Charles Tobias] Love is the Thing [1,27] Darling Ella-May [4,25] [w/G.S. Piermont] What's the Use of a Silv'ry Moon [1]      [w/Carl Winge & Sylvester L. Cross] 1937 Lovely Debutante [1,27] O Heart of Mine [1] [w/Raymond Eldred] 1938 White Shadows [1,27] [w/Gene Wilbur] A Gentleman and A Lady Were in Love      [1,29] Kahala [1,27] [w/Harry Owens]    1. as Neil Morét    2. as Paul Bertrand    3. as L'Albert    4. as Jules Lemare    5. as Sidney Carter (lyrics)    6. w/Albert H. Brown    7. w/Seymour Rice    8. w/James O'Dea    9. w/Arthur Gillespie    10. w/Earle C. Jones    11. w/Harry Williams    12. w/Herbert B.Marple    13. w/Walter Smith    14. w/Ted Fiorito    15. w/Weston Wilson    16. w/Byron Gay    17. w/Art Hickman    18. w/Ben Black    19. w/Paul Ash    20. w/Richard Whiting    21. w/Raymond B. Egan    22. w/Gus Kahn    23. w/Al Lewis & Al Sherman    24. w/Haven Gillespie    25. w/Jo Trent    26. w/George Waggner    27. w/Harry Tobias    28. w/George Hamilton    29. w/Gordon Clifford    30. w/Cliff Friend

     Charles Neil Daniels, born in Leavenworth, Kansas, actually spent most of his youth in St. Joseph, Missouri, with his family moving to Kansas City, Missouri when he was 15. He studied a panoply of musical disciplines, including piano, music theory, and musical calligraphy (a viable skill for prospective typesetters and arrangers). Among his first positions were various gigs as a pianist in department stores, an accompanist at the Kronberg Concert Company, and demonstrator for the Carl Hoffman publishing house, which gave him his first break. It was there, in response to a competition, that he composed his first published piece, a two-step called Margery. It won the prize, and soon the attention of no less than bandleader John Philip Sousa, who put it in his repertoire and created a quick demand for it. Even though sales for Margery were brisk, going as high as 275,000 within a few years, Daniels saw nothing of it since the prize money also constituted ownership of the piece by Hoffman. Pressing onward, Charles composed the music for an even bigger hit the following year, You Tell Me Your Dream, I'll Tell You Mine, which soon became a standard in the American Song Book, but also caused a further rift with Hoffman who refused to offer royalties on this piece as well.
     In December of 1898, Daniels utilized his position to help another young composer, Scott Joplin, and arranged to have a rag of his published, the first one of many for Joplin. Titled Original Rags, the cover cites that it was "arranged" by Daniels. However, according to family history passed down to from his son to Charles' grand niece, Nan Bostick, Daniels did nothing more to the piece than help transcribe and typeset it directly from Joplin's performance of it, and apply his newly-famous name to it to help with sales in markets where he was known. Original Rags would be eclipsed by Maple Leaf Rag in short order, but it remained in print with Daniel's name on the cover for many years. It may have been from this experience, plus the music scene in Kansas City, that Daniels caught the ragtime bug to some extent. Dissatisfied with the treatment he received from Hoffman, Charles formed the Western Music Publishing Company to release the tune on his own. This later became Daniels & Russell when another Hoffman refugee, Albert Russell, threw his hat in with Daniels. They headed for St. Louis around 1901 in anticipation of the coming Lewis and Clark Exposition/World's Fair, and reformed as Daniels, Russell & Boone with offices in the Benoist Building, also working as music demonstrators at the Barr Dry Goods Company.
     It was in late 1901 that by happenstance Daniels inadvertently created a new sub-genre of popular music. On a trip from Kansas City to Hiawatha, Kansas, he focused on the rhythm of the train wheels against the track joints, and came up with an intermezzo melody that he named after the destination, which itself was named for the Native American hero from the famous Longfellow poem Hiawatha. Originally subtitled A Summer Idyl (tone poem), this was also picked up by the Sousa, now his friend. Sousa's exposure of the piece resulted in a sale of his catalog to Jerome H. Remick for the extraordinary sum of $10,000, just so Remick could obtain Hiawatha, such was the public's response to it. As part of this deal Daniels was put in charge of a subsidiary company, Whitney Warner, which subsequently tried to exploit the Indian name aspect further. With lyrics added in 1903 by James O'Dea that incorporated a brief retelling of the romance between Hiawatha and Minnehaha, Hiawatha became even a bigger hit, as well as a template for many so-called Indian pieces to follow over the next two decades that would be incorporated by many famous composers, including Joseph F. Lamb, Percy Wenrich, Kerry Mills, and another friend, Charles L. Johnson.
     One of the ironies is that Daniels brought Hiawatha out using a pseudonym, Neil Morét, which was derived in part from his middle name. Given the exposure of that name through his early hits, Daniels ended up using it more than his own name throughout his career, more so than any of his contemporaries who also used pseudonyms. He also used L'Albert on a few pieces, and infrequently attributed his own lyrics to Sidney Carter for variety. Charles followed Hiawatha in 1905 with an intentional Indian intermezzo and song titled Silverheels. He also started composing a number of Mexican or Spanish-tinged pieces, forecasting another craze among composers and the musical consumer. One of his mood intermezzos, Moonlight, was so appealing to Remick that he bought it from Charlie's firm for $20,000, double what was paid for Hiawatha and the earlier catalog.
     While working in Detroit in 1906 for Remick and Whitney Warner, and still writing for his own firm as well under the pseudonym of L'Albert (as in partner Albert Russell), Charlie opened a subsidiary shop in the old Barr's firm, now the Grand Leader Department Store, where future composer Irene Giblin worked as a demonstrator. Daniels acquired Dill Pickles from Hoffman, a rag composed by his friend Charles L. Johnson. It has been stated that the two Charlies may have extended the ragtime craze by as much as a decade with this single tune, because Johnson set a standard for easy to play rags that appealed to the average pianist, and Daniels promoted it well in markets nationwide, which included getting it played and recorded by many bands. His efforts helped make Remick one of the largest publishers of both piano rags and popular ragtime songs, and Daniels was perhaps as much a proponent of piano rags as classic ragtime magnate John Stark, one of it's biggest champions.
     Two other pieces he picked up from Hoffman included Johnson's Iola, again named for a town in Kansas and not a particular Indian (although O'Dea also added lyrics to this one as well), and Peaceful Henry by Hoffman arranger E. Harry Kelly. These made plenty for Remick and their composers, but not so much for Hoffman, who may have been regretting his earlier fiscal treatment of Daniels by this time. It probably didn't help that the Kansas City branch of Daniels' company settled in right next door to Hoffman's office! While promoting ragtime heavily during this period, Charles wrote very few of his own pieces that were touted as rags, rather releasing them as intermezzos or similar genre titles. He was also concentrating on the more lucrative song business, eventually hooking up with lyricist Earle C. Jones who helped create even more best-sellers for Daniels, or more properly, Morét. He also married during this period.
     By late 1913, his primary lyricist partner, Earle Jones, had died at 35 of typhoid. Charles' young daughter had long been suffering from diabetes (misdiagnosed as lung disease), and hoping to save her life he gave up his position with Remick and relocated to a climate that was recommended as more conducive to her health, that of the desert around San Bernardino, California. Sadly, his daughter died of her ailment in 1915. However, by this time, he had started again on his own as a publisher, first founding his own self-named firm, then partnering with a younger graduate of Stanford University, Weston Wilson, to form Daniels & Wilson. Daniels also imported lyricist Harry William from Remick, and they continued to turn out hits in California. His reputation got him a turn at composing a title tune for a 1918 Mack Sennett film starring one of Hollywood's more popular actresses, Mabel Normand. Mickey worked well as a two-way promotion for both the film and the song, garnering Daniels and Williams a good-sized wartime hit. Many historians consider it the earliest popular song directly associated with a film title, and it did very well after being picked up by Waterson, Snyder and Berlin in New York. The following year Daniels and Williams turned out another nationwide hit, Peggy. However, the lucky streak was not to last. His young partner Wilson joined the military for the war, never to return to the firm but later to get into the oil business, which left Charles to run the company by himself. Then in 1922 Harry Williams died while visiting Daniels, sadly ending another successful partnership.
     Daniels regrouped after these tragedies and worked for a time as a west-coast arranger for Waterson, Snyder and Berlin, but after getting back on his feet he founded the San Francisco firm of Villa Morét (House of Morét) in 1924. Partnered with bandleader Ben Black, one of their first issues, adorned by a beautiful cover, was a fox-trot version of organist Edwin Lemare's andantino Moonlight and Roses, which became a band hit in short order. This was the beginning of several years of hits turned out by the successful firm, including some penned with now-famous lyricists Richard Whiting and Gus Kahn. The most famous of these pieces by Morét and Kahn was Chlo-E - Song of the Swamp of 1927, which featured a plaintive cry to the titled lady. Some will remember the famous parody of this work in the late 1940s by Spike Jones and his City Slickers, but it received serious attention at this time, and put him once again on a par with many contemporary East Coast composers like Duke Ellington. In 1928, with Richard Whiting, he turned out She's Funny That Way, which later became an early theme for crooner Frank Sinatra.
     Trends were changing in 1929 in advance of the Great Depression, and Daniels saw these coming. Many of the publishers were being bought up by film companies now looking for material for sound movies. Also, sheet music was losing its luster in light of phonograph records, talking pictures, and radio, all of which required little effort on the part of the listener to enjoy. Daniels moved to Los Angeles, but could not convince the company, of which he was president but not owner, to move their operations to Hollywood. He wrote a few pieces as Jules LeMare while trying to legally separate from Villa Morét publications, and spent the 1930s working with younger lyricists, primarily for publisher Jack Robbins, who was associated with the MGM Studio. Many of these credited bandleader Gus Arnheim as co-composer, a courtesy title for the leader who introduced the pieces - including the big hit Sweet and Lovely - on his radio show, a common practice in the 1920s and 1930s. That courtesy also included 33% of the royalties. Charles composed up until a few years before his 1943 death in Los Angeles at age 64. While he is less remembered under his own name, Daniels had a fairly substantial role in both the style and the spread of music in the early 20th century, working from outside of Tin Pan Alley, and yet contributing to it in a big way. This includes ragtime music, early popular song, and well beyond.

     I would like to add a personal note of thanks to my friend and ragtime performer Nan Bostick who was responsible for much of this research on her great uncle, as well as historian Phil Stewart whose research on Charles L. Johnson had useful cross references on Daniels.