"Ramona" is a 1928 song, with lyrics written by

L. Wolfe Gilbert Louis Wolfe Gilbert (August 31, 1886 – July 12, 1970) was a Russian Empire–born American songwriter of Tin Pan Alley. He is best remembered as the lyricist for "Ramona" (1928), the first movie theme song ever written. Biography Born i ...

and music by

Mabel Wayne Mabel Wayne (born Mabel Wimpfheimer, July 16, 1890 – June 19, 1978) was an American songwriter, noted as "one of the first women composers to publish a hit song". Her songs included " In a Little Spanish Town", "Ramona", and "It Happened in Mo ...

. Composed for the 1928 feature film ''

Ramona ''Ramona'' is a 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish– Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and ...

'', it was the first theme song ever written for the movies.

History

It was created as the title song for publicity to the 1928 silent adventure film-romance ''

'' (based on the 1884 novel ''

'' by

Helen Hunt Jackson Helen Hunt Jackson (pen name, H.H.; born Helen Maria Fiske; October 15, 1830 – August 12, 1885) was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans by t ...

). The song was used again in the 1936 remake of the movie. ''Ramona'' was recorded in 1928 by

Dolores del Río María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete (3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983), known professionally as Dolores del Río (), was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin Am ...

for the film.

Gene Austin Lemeul Eugene Lucas (June 24, 1900 – January 24, 1972), better known by his stage name Gene Austin, was an American singer and songwriter, one of the early "crooners". His recording of " My Blue Heaven" sold over 5 million copies and was for a ...

's 1928 version charted for 17 weeks, with eight weeks at No. 1, and easily topped a million in sales.

Recordings

*On record it was a popular hit, usually performed as a romantic ballad, sometimes with a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

inflection by "Whispering" Jack Smith and, in an idiosyncratic arrangement recorded on 4 January 1928, the

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, ...

Orchestra. The Paul Whiteman version, Victor 21214-A, featuring

Bix Beiderbecke Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical app ...

on cornet, was No. 1 for 3 weeks on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' charts in 1928.

's recording was No. 1 for 8 weeks the same year.

Ruth Etting Ruth Etting (November 23, 1896 – September 24, 1978) was an American singer and actress of the 1920s and 1930s, who had over 60 hit recordings and worked in stage, radio, and film. Known as "America's sweetheart of song", her signature tunes ...

also recorded a version, which reached No. 10. *

Les Brown and His Band of Renown Lester Raymond Brown (March 14, 1912 – January 4, 2001) was an American jazz musician who led the big band Les Brown and His Band of Renown for nearly seven decades from 1938 to 2000. Biography Brown was born in Reinerton, Pennsylvania. He en ...

recorded "Ramona" in 1953. *In 1958,

Jim Reeves James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentleman ...

recorded "Ramona" for his album ''Girls I Have Known''. *It was a German, and Dutch number one hit in 1960 for the

Blue Diamonds Blue diamond is a type of diamond which exhibits all of the same inherent properties of the mineral except with the additional element of blue color in the stone. They are colored blue by trace amounts of boron that contaminate the crystalline la ...

, arranged in an upbeat style similar to the

Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 1939 ...

recordings of that period. *In 1964 it was a UK hit for

The Bachelors The Bachelors were a popular music group, originating from Dublin, Ireland, but primarily based in the United Kingdom. They had several international hits during the 1960s, including eight top-ten singles in the UK between 1963 and 1966. Car ...

who reached the No. 4 spot in the charts during a 13-week stay. *Singer Billy Walker revived the song for the country market in 1968, reaching the top 10 of the US country charts, peaking at No. 8. *

Grady Martin Thomas Grady Martin (January 17, 1929 – December 3, 2001) was an American session guitarist in country music and rockabilly. A member of The Nashville A-Team, he played guitar on hits such as Marty Robbins' "El Paso", Loretta Lynn's " Coal ...

released an instrumental version in 1965 on his

Instrumentally Yours ''Instrumentally Yours'' is a studio album released by guitarist Grady Martin in 1965 on Decca LP record DL 74610 (stereo) and DL 4610 (mono). The album was also issued, in truncated format, on a 7-inch "Little LP" mini-album for Seeburg jukebox ...

album. *This song was covered by the late

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an singer/

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

Su Yin (舒雲) in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...

language with

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

lyrics written by Li Tian (黎天) and given the title name of蕾夢娜, appearing on his LP album
黃昏放牛＊一片青青的草地
', and released by

EMI Columbia Records Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a manageme ...

in 1967.

Popular culture

*It has been used on the soundtracks of several other films, most recently by

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (''Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessne ...

in '' Land and Freedom'' (1995) and in the BAFTA-nominated ''

Harry un ami qui vous veut du bien ''Harry, He's Here to Help'' (french: Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien - "Harry, a friend who wishes you well", US title: ''With a Friend Like Harry...'') is a French film released in 2000. It was directed by Dominik Moll. Plot Middle-class cou ...

'' (2000).

References

1928 songs Number-one singles in Germany Songs with music by Mabel Wayne Songs written by L. Wolfe Gilbert Billy Walker (musician) songs {{1920s-song-stub