The Real Thing

This week on Three Tune Tuesday, we’re chasing “the real thing”: being genuine, acting with intention, and doing something just because you love it. First, “Sallie Gooden,” recorded in 1922 by Texas fiddler Eck Robertson. He walked into Victor’s New York office uninvited, in full cowboy dress, and played the tune he’d known all his life. It’s often called the first commercial country record. Then “I’m Sitting on Top of the World,” the 1926 hit about pure happiness, on a British budget label. It’s sung by “Frank Thomas,” a baritone nobody can quite identify, and this copy carries an Australian royalty stamp. And finally, “I Love a Piano,” Billy Murray’s 1916 take on Irving Berlin’s love letter to the piano. Berlin never really learned to play it, and the piano on the record is played by a cellist from Quebec. A fiddler nobody invited, a singer nobody can name, and a songwriter who could only play the black keys. None of them was the “proper” thing, and all of them were the real thing.