Moonlight Bay
1912 musical composition by Percy Wenrich and Edward Madden
"Moonlight Bay" is a popular song. It is commonly referred to as "On Moonlight Bay". The lyrics were written by Edward Madden, the music by Percy Wenrich, and was published in 1912. It is often sung in a barbershop quartet style. Early successful recordings in 1912 were by the American Quartet and by Dolly Connolly.
Notable covers
Glenn Miller and his Orchestra recorded the song on March 22, 1937, with a special swing arrangement by Miller.
The song was featured in the film Tin Pan Alley (1940), where it was sung by Alice Faye. Faye also included the song in her 1962 album Alice Faye Sings Her Greatest Movie Hits.
The song, sung in barbershop quartet style, features in the first Daffy Duck cartoon, Porky's Duck Hunt (1937).
Porky Pig repeatedly tries to sing the song in the 1942 cartoon My Favorite Duck.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Moonlight Bay” is 1912 musical composition by Percy Wenrich and Edward Madden. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Moonlight, musical and composition, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1912 musical composition by Percy Wenrich and Edward Madden” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7091049. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1912, 1937, 1940 and 1962.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Moonlight Bay”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Moonlight Bay primary sources, Moonlight Bay archive and Moonlight research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Moonlight Bay”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Moonlight Bay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.