The most famous waltz celebrating Nevada is When It's Night-time in Nevada. Variously attributed to Gene Autry or Bob Nolan of the Sons of the Pioneers, the music was actually written by Will E. Dulmage and H. O'Reilly Clint with lyrics by Richard W. Pascoe. Durage, Clint and Pascoe were hardly cowboys - they were all successful songwriters living in Detroit. Clint has the added distinction of being the composer of Michigan's state song - My Michigan (such coincidences warm the heart of state-song chasers). When It's Night-time in Nevada was copyrighted in 1931 and was an immediate hit with at least eight recording made that year (by Layton and Johnstone, O'Dell and Hudson, Bert and Bob, Arthur Lally and the Million-Airs, Carson Robison and Frank Luther-Abraham, Carson Robison Trio, Maurice Elwin, Frankie Marvin, Tommie and Willie and more the next year including one in Swedish). The earliest of those, by a matter of months, is believed to be that of Frankie Martin:
Since that time, there have been at least 50 versions of Night-time recorded. Perhaps the most famous is the one sung by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers in the 1948 movie, Night Time in Nevada. Sadly, most versions of this movie available today edit out the song which gave the movie its title but, fortunately, the full movie does exist on YouTube and the video below was excerpted from that version.
In 1963, Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers recorded When It's Night-time in Nevada on the RCA Victor record, Our Men Out West (RCA Victor LPM/LP-2603) which you can hear here. This recorded version leaves out one of the verses and also eliminates the one verse which is inexplicably sung in Spanish in the movie.
An even earlier waltz celebrating Nevada, The Whispering Pines of Nevada, was created in London. The music, first published in 1927, was composed by an Englishman, Horatio Nicholls (whose real name was Lawrence Wright), and the lyrics (and presumably the title) were written by an American, Edgar Leslie. Some sources also list Alvin Keech as a composer but he was actually the arranger (for banjo-uke, an instrument popularized by Keech and his brother Kelvin as the banjulele) of the first published version. Nichols/Wright was an important figure in London music of the era and you can see him in an interesting short film about one of his big hits, I'm Saving the Last Waltz for You. (not to be confused with the Drifters' Save the Last Dance for Me). The Whispering Pines of Nevada was recorded by a number of dance bands including the one that broadcast it's performance from the Tivoli Cinema on the Strand in London (the band was almost certainly led by John Reynders):
The success of Tennessee Waltz in 1948, triggered a flurry of state waltzes. One of those was Nevada Waltz which was recorded in 1949, on RCA 21-0084 by Dude Martin and his Roundup Gang. Martin was best known for a weekly, local Country Western show on KTTV in Los Angeles from 1951 to 1955 but he also had a successful recording career for RCA and Mercury records and his western swing band was compared to that of Bob Wills. Copyright records indicate that it was also released as sheet music for piano and vocal by Vanguard Songs. Martin co-wrote the song with the accordionist in his band Ted Johnson. You can see Johnson (his neckname - Hezzy - is emblazened on his chaps) in the photo that accompanies the video of Nevada Waltz below.
A more recent waltz celebrating Nevada is Waltz of Nevada performed by David John and the Comstock Cowboys on their 2002 album, Cowboys, Old Fiddles & Wine on the Aztec record label. David John is a talented singer/songwriter once nominated as songwriter and entertainer of the year by the Western Music Association. He's headquartered in Virginia City, Nevada and,sadly, rarely seems to venture far from home. You'll have to travel to Nevada to see one of his shows but you can listen to his Waltz of Nevada in the video below courtesy of CDBaby.
Moving away from western and cowboy influence, Mark Knopfler provides a jewel of a waltz titled Sands of Nevada on his 2000 album, Sailing to Philadelphia. The version below from YouTube is accompanied by some gorgeous photographs by Antton Longaron Galarza of winter in the Basque country in today's Spain and France. Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but there was a large migration from the Basque country to northern Nevada in the 1950's and they remain an important cultural group in the state. The landscapes are said to be similar.
It barely counts as a waltz but David Murray's live jazz improvisation titled Nevada's Theme starts out in 3/4 time but after a little over a minute it wanders off into arrhythmic territory. It may return to a waltz structure sometime later in its eleven minutes of music, but this listener wandered off after about two minute and doesn't know how the tune ends.
Not included in the discussion above:
There is evidence of a Nevada Waltz in existence before 1890 but the waltz itself is, sadly, lost. The September 27, 1890 Weymouth Gazette published in Weymouth, Massachusetts contained a review of a program presented at the Opera House in Chagrin Falls which contains these words, "The audience was so pleased with "Nevada Waltz" as sung by Miss [Maude] Nichols that she was called back and entertained them with another pretty song which only increased their appreciation of the singer." In the same issue Miss Sussie J. Tirrell offered twenty piano lessons for $10 in East Weymouth.
A review of copyright records available in the Internet Archives found these additional waltzes.
- 1949, Nevada Trail, a Cowpunchers Waltz - from the movie West of Laramie, by Foster Carling.
- 1953, Waltz of Nevada - words to Clara Clifton Glover and music to Ann V. Brown.
- 1954, The Nevada Waltz - by Edward Arnold Stredick (a Canadian copyright)
- 1962, The Nevada Waltz - words to Alfred L. Atkinson and music to Buddy Bregman
- 1962, Nevada Waltz - words and music to Albert C. Johnston, Jr.
- 1975, The Nevada Waltz - words and music to Dorothy J. Halter
And finally for those who make their own music, here is a simplified score for When It's Night-time in Nevada which retains the rhythm composed for the original piano sheet music but approximates the song sung by Roy Rogers.
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