A Will R. Anderson Hit

On February 27, 1908, the Los Angeles Herald published an article in which Will R. Anderson revealed his secrets for writing a hit song:

Will R. Anderson, the author of Just Someone, by far the catchiest little song, both to melody and words that has been offered the American public in some years, has at last come out of his long, deep silence and told how he did it.

This is not Mr. Anderson's first lucky strike as the author of a popular song. Some years ago when the Silver Slipper was playing at the Broadway Theater, New York City, to indifferent business, the management interpolated a little number of his called Tessie, and within a week all New York was singing it, and within a surprisingly short period of time its popularity had spread over the entire country.  Just Someone, though published but a short time, bids fair to eclipse not only Tessie but every other song in the field at the present time.

Mr. Anderson, who is not a professional song writer, but is engaged as advertising man with one of the largest chemical houses in the country, explains the art of writing a singable song in these words: 

'The first step in the construction of a song that the public is going to like and take to at first hearing, is tunefulness; next to this in importance is simplicity.  I believe that my entire success with Just Someone is due to its simple and tuneful little melody.

'Next comes the words or rhyme.  Here again simplicity plays an important part--simplicity and sentiment--the former to make it popular with the masses who do not care to spend too much of their time in memorizing a song, and the later for the ladies, who are the real purchasers of our music after all.  Take the very first lines of Just Someone for example; they are simplicity itself, and yet they are sentimental and hold out a promise of more to come:

When you're happy and contented,
And your sky is clear and blue,
It's kind of nice to know there's someone,
Glad to share it all with you.

'These opening lines, I honestly believe, were responsible for M. Witmark & Sons publishing the song.  When I submitted it to them, they declared that they had all the sentimental songs they cared for--I read the first lines to them, they became interested--I played the music over, then sang the words and walked out of the place with my contract.  Again I say, simplicity, sentiment and tunefulness--get these and you have a popular song.'

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Left Out in the Cold with His Blood Boiling

The same day the Los Angeles Herald revealed Anderson's composing formula, the Reading [PA] Times revealed "how he had been left out in the cold but with his blood boiling":

Will R. Anderson, who wrote the popular song Just Someone, had his overcoat stolen from his house a few days ago. The next day a voice informed him over the phone that the owner of the voice had taken the coat and thanked the song writer for the splendid fit.  'Who the devil are you?' Anderson yelled over the wire.  Sweetly the answer came back:

'Just Someone who was sharp enough to have the right key to get in your flat.  Say, the next song you write you might call it Alone in the Cold, Cold World or The Lay of a Coatless Man. 

Then did Anderson swear a mighty oath.

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Reunited by a Love Song

Several months later, a story attesting to the power of music came to Billboard's attention:

Mr. and Mrs. Ebeling, a prominent couple in society affairs on the East Side of New York City, were recently reconciled after an estrangement of years through the medium of a popular new sentimental ballad. 

Mr.and Mrs. Ebeling attended one of the vaudeville theatres last week, and although they sat in different parts of the house, their eyes instinctively met from time to time during the performance, making them both feel embarrassed and uncomfortable.

It as well along toward the end of the performance when one of the actresses on the bill came out and sang the latest New York song craze, Just Someone:


When you're happy and contented,
And the sky above is blue,
It's kind of nice to know there's someone,
Glad to share it all with you.

Mr. and Mrs. Ebeling's eyes met with a look that they had not contained for four long years, and as the singer proceeded to tell through the song how nice it was also to have someone to share your troubles, the estranged pair were doing some hard thinking.  At the conclusion of the play, they were both in a wonderful receptive mood for reconciliation.


In the jam at the theatre door, somehow, in an unexplained manner, they found themselves very close together.  Mr. Ebeling also found himself possessed of his wife's hand, and as he felt a responsive squeeze, he whispered in her ear:  "Ethel, I want 'someone' to come home with me, and that 'just someone' is yourself."

They got in the cab and drove home for the first time together in four years, and now all their friends are talking about this romance of real life which reads like fiction, but the happy pair are not worrying over their friends' opinion, and the neighbors hear them at the piano every night singing together the chorus of Just Someone, the song that reunited them:

Someone to love and cheer you,
Sometimes when things go wrong,
Someone to snuggle near you,
Someone to hear your song.
                                                        --The Billboard, June 6, 1908

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