The Wildwood Song You Didnt Know Existed

When you think of Wildwood based songs, the first one that comes to mind is Bobby Rydell’s famous “Wildwood Days” and sometimes the occasional, “Wildwood By The Sea” by Bill Jolly. (Click those links to listen to those songs) But you would ever guess that there is a song about Wildwood that is almost as old as Wildwood itself?

Let me introduce you to Miss Lois Worden. (Pictured to the right)

There isn’t much found about Lois except she was a singer and song writer from Philadelphia Pa that liked to travel down to the beaches of South Jersey for some fresh air. While in South Jersey she became fascinated with the borough of Wildwood. At the time in 1900, The Baker Brothers, along with their company, the Wildwood Beach Improvement Company, was developing Wildwood into a seashore destination, “That is second only to Atlantic City”.

Miss Lois Worden enjoyed Wildwood so much that she wrote a song in mid 1905 called, “Wildwood By The Sea” According to the U.S. Congressional Library, the song was a big hit and was copyrighted in late 1905 by the Philadelphia : Metropolitan Music Publication. Co and sold in music stores. (Pictured below is a copy of the front page of the sheet music)

Over time this song faded into the past and was completely forgotten, until now.

After fooling around the U.S. Congressional Library website, I came across this sheet music that had a name that rang close to home, “Wildwood By The Sea”. Intrigued by this, I opened the sheet music and started plunking the melody on the piano. What a treasure.

Miss Lois Worden dedicated this song at the top of the sheet music saying, “Dedicated to Baker Brothers, founders of Wildwood, N.J.”

In honor of this incredible find, I recorded the piano part and sang the words for you. Below there are two videos, one with the vocal and piano and one just piano.

Let me know what you think about the song in the comment section below and please subscribe to our Youtube channel http://bit.ly/2rk23G7