After The Ball was the first “platinum” single in history, selling more than two million copies of its sheet music in 1892. At its heart is a misunderstanding and the bitter regret of someone who was too hurt and stubborn to accept an explanation, which probably accounted for its melodramatic appeal. (When the Louvin Brothers wrote and recorded “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby,” they at least let the jealous guy off by explaining the brother-sister relationship while still at the dance.) I love the Blue Sky Boys version of the song, recorded live in 1964 and released on Rounder Records. The Blue Sky Boys heyday was in the ’30s and ’40s, but their sentimental performance of this ancient song is especially good.
After The Ball (performed by the Blue Sky Boys, among others)
Written by Charles K. Harris
A little maiden climbed an old man’s knee
Begged for a story — “Do, uncle, please!”
“Why are you single, why live alone?
Have you no babies, have you no home?”
“I had a sweetheart, years, years ago
Where she is now, pet, you will soon know
List to the story, I’ll tell it all
I believed her faithless, after the ball”After the ball is over
After the break of morn
After the dancers’ leaving
After the stars are gone
Many a heart is aching
If you could read them all
Many the hopes that have vanished
After the ball“Bright lights were flashing in the grand ballroom
Softly the music, playing sweet tunes
There came my sweetheart, my love, my own
‘I wish some water, leave me alone’
When I returned, dear, there stood a man
Kissing my sweetheart, as lovers can
Down fell the glass, pet, broken, that’s all
Just as my heart was, after the ball”After the ball is over
After the break of morn
After the dancers’ leaving
After the stars are gone
Many a heart is aching
If you could read them all
Many the hopes that have vanished
After the ball“Long years have passed child, I’ve never wed
True to my lost love, though she is dead
She tried to tell me, tried to explain
I would not listen, pleadings were vain
One day a letter came from that man
He was her brother — the letter ran
That’s why I’m lonely, no home at all
I broke her heart, pet, after the ball”After the ball is over
After the break of morn
After the dancers’ leaving
After the stars are gone
Many a heart is aching
If you could read them all
Many the hopes that have vanished
After the ball
The heartbreak in the song might be a bit overdone, but I have to appreciate a song written more than a century ago that can still stick in my head. My father remembered his grandmother singing it when he was a child, and though I’ve never known her or heard her voice, I can imagine her singing, watching out her window, as they say she always did, crying as they left.