“I WONDER WHO’S KISSING HER NOW” AND WORK-FOR-HIRE

Abstract

This is the third of six chapters tracing how waltzes often became performed as duple-meter tunes, inflected with jazz style, via the collective innovation of performance tradition. This chapter focuses on “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” (1909), written in Chicago by lyricists Will M. Hough and Frank R. Adams, and Harold Orlob—who composed the music, as a work-for-hire for composer-performer Joe E. Howard, and sued for credit decades later. The discussion details the song’s revivals in the swing and rock and roll eras. Analysis of the piece focuses on the emotions of the lyric and the fit between words and melody. Gender politics are explored; this distinctively male torch song became occasionally adapted by women. Its use in stage and movie musicals is analyzed in this light. The lyric helped innovate the pondering of a landscape of introspection, foreshadowing later lyrics wondering about the lost beloved’s fate.