1920 popular song written by Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Avalon" is a popular jazz song. It was written by Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose in 1920.[1] It was first recorded by Jolson and used in the musicals Sinbad and Bombo.[2][3][4][5] Jolson's version became #2 on the American singles chart. It is possible that Rose wrote the song alone, and that Jolson's name was used in the credits because he was a popular artist and helped make the song popular.[1] At first only Rose and Jolson were marked as the writers, and DeSylva's name was added later.[1]
Many jazz artists have recorded the song, for example Cab Calloway (1934), Coleman Hawkins (1935) and Eddie Durham (1936). Benny Goodman played the song in his concert in Carnegie Hall in 1938.[1] The song was also played in the films The Jolson Story (1946) and The Benny Goodman Story (1956).[6]
The melody at the beginning of the song was taken from Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca, and Rose changed it only a little. Because of this, a court later decided that Jolson and Rose had to pay Puccini's publishers $25,000 and all later profits from the song.[1]
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