Dream On (An Indian Lullaby)

"Dream On"
Cover, sheet music, 1922
Song

"Dream On (An Indian Lullaby)" is a popular song written by B.G. DeSylva with music composed by Herbert Victor. The song is a Cherokee mother's lullaby to her child. The lyrics as first written are:

When the red Indian sun

Bids his goodbye;

Mother sees Cherokee's sleeptime's nigh,

When the fast fading day leaves a gray sky,

Twilight comes, then she hums this lullaby;

Dream on, mother is holding you, Ah yah*, ah yah;

Dream on, night is enfolding you, Ah yah, ah yah;

Some fair silver canoe

Carries you through into Dreamland,

Over a blue lagoon

Where the crickets croon, Ah yah, ah yah.

Dream on, mother is holding you, Ah yah, ah yah;

Dream on, night is enfolding you, Ah yah, ah yah;

New moon slender and frail

Quickly will pale and be gone,

And you'll come back to me then in the rose of dawn.

*Indian for "bye-lo" pronounced Hey-ah.

The first commercial recording of "Dream On" was by Mario Chamlee (Brunswick 10158) in 1925.

Bibliography

• DeSylva, B.G. (w.); Herbert, Victor (m.). "Dream On" (An Indian Lullaby), (Sheet music). New York: Harms (1922).
• Kaye, Joseph. Victor Herbert: The Biography of America's Greatest Composer of Romantic Music. Wrangell-Rokassowsky Press (2007).