Dream On (An Indian Lullaby)

"Dream On"
(An Indian Lullaby)
Cover, sheet music, 1922
Song
Published	1922
Composer	Victor Herbert
Lyricist	B.G. DeSylva
Language	English

"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:^[1]

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.

References

1. DeSylva, "Dream On" (sheet music).

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).