Well, this song is a real downer. If anyone ever recorded this song, I haven't been able to find it.
I couldn't find any biographical information on Jeff Branen, but he was both a lyricist and composer who wrote many songs, and based on where they were all published, he must have been based in New York. He wrote and composed "In the Valley of the Moon" in 1913, and was the lyricist for many other songs, such as "Unconciously," "Hear That Orchestra Rag," "All That I Had and All That I Have and All That I Want is in Ireland," "Strolling Through Maiden Lane," and "I Guess I'll Take the Train Back Home." There are many others.
Henry Petrie was born in 1857 in Bloomington, Illinois and died in 1925 in Paw Paw, Michigan. It looks like almost all of his songs were published in Chicago. He wrote and composed "Sleep, My Babykin, Sleep" and "When the Twilight Comes To Kiss the Rose Good Night." He was the composer of other songs like "Where the Sunset Turns the Ocean's Blue To Gold," "I Don't Want To Play in Your Yard," and "When Young Bud Weiser Married Ann Heuser Busch." He also composed an instrumental called "Clochette." And many more.
Back then, based on what I've read and seen in different songs, the words "tornado," "hurricane," and "cyclone" were often used interchangeably, as opposed to the present day when those words all have specific technical definitions. Based on the lyrics and the year of this publication, this song may have been the first song ever written about the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which to this day remains the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. If this song was recorded, it probably wasn't a hit, but I think it's still historically significant.
I wrote a male quartet arrangement for the chorus.
